Hyderabad: Former Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar has been appointed as the chief advisor to Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao after taking up voluntary retirement from the Andhra Pradesh government.
He has been appointed to the ranks of a Cabinet Minister.
Somesh Kumar resigned as senior IAS officer to the Andhra Pradesh government in February, after the Telangana High Court directed him to return to the state, post bifurcation. The High Court denied the allotment of chief secretary Somesh Kumar to the Telangana cadre stating that he belongs to the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
Somesh Kumar who was appointed as the chief secretary on December 31, 2019, had earlier approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) during the period of Andhra-Telangana bifurcation and asked for his cadre allocation to AP stayed.
However, the Union government, which had made the allocation of cadre, appealed to the Telangana High Court to strike down the CAT order.
Telangana HC directs Somesh Kumar to return to AP, denies stay on cadre allotment
A bench headed by chief justice Ujjal Bhuyan allowed the appeal of the Centre and struck down the CAT order. After multiple hearings, the court announced its verdict directing Somesh Kumar to move to AP.
The state government has accepted the VRS being availed of by senior IAS officer, Somesh Kumar, who was the chief secretary of Telangana before being shifted to Andhra Pradesh. Although he reported to the Chief Minister following court directions, he was not allotted any post all these days.
What happened earlier
Somesh Kumar, an IAS from the 1989 batch in Bihar was allotted to the AP cadre when he was appointed to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
However, after the bifurcation between the two states, the Centre took up the division of officers too.
Some officers of the All India Services approached the CAT seeking to continue in Telangana in this process.
The Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao appointed Kumar as the chief secretary considering his length of service before attaining the age superannuation so that there would be continuity in administration for at least three years in the role of chief secretary.
Somesh Kumar also initially held the additional charge of the principal secretaries of revenue, commercial Taxes, and chief commissioner of land administration (CCLA).
However, after the HC’s verdict, he will now have to be relieved immediately and report for his duty in AP.
