The Telangana High Court has reserved its order on a plea filed by Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Amrapali, seeking to vacate an interim stay on a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order that directed her allocation to the Telangana cadre. A Division Bench comprising Justices Moushumi Bhattacharya and Renuka Yara indicated that a decision would be pronounced within two weeks.
The application was filed as part of a writ petition instituted by the Union Government, which challenges a CAT order from June 24, 2025. This CAT order had granted relief to Amrapali in a dispute concerning the mutual exchange of cadre allocations between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana following the bifurcation of the erstwhile state. The High Court had initially placed a stay on the operation of the Tribunal’s order on December 8, 2025, pending the final disposal of the writ petition.
During the proceedings, senior counsel Avinash Desai, representing Amrapali, argued that the cadre allocation exercise conducted after the division of Andhra Pradesh had resulted in injustice to the officer. He contended that the classification of officers and the subsequent allocation of insider posts between the two successor states led to a General Category insider post, which should have been allocated to Telangana, being assigned to Andhra Pradesh instead. Desai urged the bench to vacate the interim stay, allowing the CAT’s order to take effect.
Opposing the plea, Additional Solicitor General B. Narasimha Sharma, appearing for the Union Government, argued that the issue of insider-outsider classification, as per the October 10, 2014, notification, had not been directly challenged in the current proceedings and was unrelated to the dispute at hand. The arguments highlighted the complexities arising from the cadre allocation process, which aimed to equitably distribute IAS officers between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana after the state’s reorganization.
The dispute traces back to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, after which Amrapali was initially allocated to the undivided state’s cadre. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) later assigned her to the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh. Following the rejection of her request to be reallocated to the Telangana cadre by the Centre, Amrapali approached the Central Administrative Tribunal. The CAT, in its order, directed the Union and State governments to allot her to the Telangana cadre.
However, the Union Government challenged this CAT order in the Telangana High Court. The High Court, in December 2025, suspended the operation of the CAT order while it considered the Union government’s petition. Amrapali, who was then serving as the GHMC Commissioner, then joined the AP cadre as per the High Court’s interim order. She subsequently filed the interlocutory application to vacate the High Court’s interim stay, leading to the current proceedings where the court has reserved its verdict.
The Chenab Times News Desk