Telangana State High Court directs Chief Secretary to appear on March 14

Hyderabad: The State High Court Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili on Tuesday directed Somesh Kumar, State Chief Secretary, to appear before it on March 14, 2022, as the State failed to file a reply in the Public Interest Litigation No.240/2020 which says that the Telangana government is forcing many officers to wait for posting and keeping them under "waiting" without giving them posting and further paying them salaries, which is taxpayers money, without eliciting any work from them.

The PIL was filed in 2020 by Bondili Nagadhar Singh, a retired employee staying in Tirumalgherry, Secunderabad. Venkanna, the counsel for the petitioner. furnished a list of all such officers working in the Revenue department, office of Chief Commissioner of Land Administration, Prohibition and Excise department, who have been kept "waiting" and are being paid full salaries despite the fact that they are not given any posting and no work is elicited from them. Paying the officers, who are kept waiting, from the exchequer is a heavy loss to the State, averred the counsel.

Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, after hearing the contentions of the counsel for the petitioner, observed "many officers are not given posting orders by the State government and they are forced to sit idle subjecting the State exchequer to heavy loss by paying salaries and not taking any work from them. Despite repeated opportunities given to the State, no counter affidavit has been filed.

"Therefore, this court is left with no other option, but to order for the personal appearance of Somesh Kumar to appear before it on March 14. In case, a counter-affidavit is filed, personal appearance of the Chief Secretary will be exempted." The CJ said the Chief Secretary affidavit shall include all details of all officers who are not given any posting and the action taken by the government on the officers who are left without posting. Harender Prasad, Special Government Pleader, attached to the Advocate-General office has been directed to inform the Chief Secretary about the order passed by the court on Tuesday. The hearing was adjourned to March 14.

Batch of writs seeking stay on GO 317; all transfers will be subject to final outcome: CJ

On Tuesday the Division Bench comprising of CJ Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili told J Ramchander Rao, Additional Advocate-General, Telangana, that the transfers of all teachers, secondary grade teachers and school assistants, taken up by the State government organising local cadre for them will be subject to the final outcome of the writ petitions filed by them and posted the case for hearing on April 4, 2022.

While hearing the petitions, CJ Satish Chandra Sharma told the counsels appearing for the petitioners that the court had earlier, while hearing identical writ petitions, had rejected the plea of the petitioners to stay GO 317 and directed the State government to file counter-affidavits on the batch of writ petitions and adjourned the hearing to April 4.

J Ramchander Rao, Additional AG, informed the division bench that counter-affidavits have been filed in some writ petitions. He apprised the court that all the employees, who have been transferred to new place of work, have reported for duty and assured the court that counter- affidavits in the remaining writ petitions will be filed shortly. The division bench was adjudicating a batch of writ petitions filed by teachers, secondary grade teachers and school assistants working in various government schools challenging GO 317 dated December 6, 2021, and sought a stay also on GO 256 dated August 27,2021. The hearing was adjourned to April 4, 2022.