In a huge setback to Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar, the High Court on Tuesday quashed an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) allocating him to the state and directing him to join in Andhra Pradesh where he had been reallocated originally during the bifurcation of the unified state.

Meanwhile, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has issued an order to the chief secretary asking him to join by 12 January in AP.

Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer who is going to retire by the end of this year, was appointed chief secretary in December 2019 by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao keeping in mind his tenure as it matched with that of the current BRS Government in the state.

Somesh Kumar is likely to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court but the apex court today refused to keep the verdict in abeyance for three weeks and directed him to join AP immediately. With the Assembly elections scheduled to be held by the end of this year in Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has an unenviable task at hand, that’s finding a suitable successor in an election year.

In 2014, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Central government had reallocated the All India Services officers in the newly-carved Telangana state and residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. Somesh Kumar was allocated to AP, but he challenged the order in CAT which had passed an order allocating him to Telangana in 2016. However, the DoPT challenged the order of the CAT in a writ petition filed in the high court.

Admitting the writ petition, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan quashed the order of CAT. “CAT fell in error in interfering with the allocation list and setting aside the same qua the allocation of the first respondent to the State of Andhra Pradesh,” read the order of the division bench and went on to add that the order of CAT was “legally and factually untenable”.

It pointed out that CAT overrode the fact that the cadre controlling authority was the Central government.

Opposition parties, both the BJP and Congress, have welcomed the directive of the high court. Somesh Kumar holds additional charges of chief commissioner of land administration (CCLA) and heads the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) and came up with the digital integrated land records system Dharani which has proved to be controversial. TPCC chief Revanth Reddy said, “We have been saying from the beginning that the appointment of CS Somesh Kumar is illegal. The high court said the same. The CBI should investigate the decisions taken by Somesh Kumar as chief secretary such as Dharani, head of CCLA and RERA.

BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said appointing Somesh Kumar as chief secretary while his case was pending in court proves KCR’s unethical politics.

“Somesh Kumar was used as a pawn to commit corruption on a large scale by appointing officials favoured by them in departments like HMDA, revenue, irrigation, home, etc.,” alleged the BJP leader who demanded that he should be immediately removed and a person from Telangana cadre should be appointed as chief secretary.