Somesh Kumar, who became Chief Secretary of Telangana in 2019, had to step down in January this year after the High Court directed him to report to the Andhra Pradesh cadre.

news News Tuesday, May 09, 2023 - 19:02
Written by  TNM Staff

Former Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has been appointed as Chief Advisor to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. The Telangana government issued a government order (GO) to this effect on May 9, Tuesday. Somesh Kumar will now hold the rank of a cabinet minister for a period of three years.

Somesh Kumar was appointed as the Chief Secretary of Telangana in December 2019. However, he was directed to step down in January this year after the Telangana High Court issued an order directing him to report to Andhra Pradesh. The High Court had allowed a writ petition filed by the Union government’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), challenging a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order allotting Somesh Kumar to Telangana after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Following the High Court order, when Somesh Kumar arrived in Vijayawada to report to the Andhra Pradesh government, the IAS officer was asked if he would accept a lower post in Andhra after having served as the Chief Secretary in Telangana. He had told the media, “As an officer, I am ready to take any responsibility which the government entrusts. No post is big or small. Whatever post I get, I will work.”

On January 10, the Telangana High Court had set aside an order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), allocating Somesh Kumar to Telangana in 2016. On the same day, the Department for Personnel Training (DoPT) of the Government of India relieved him from the state government of Telangana and directed to join the Andhra Pradesh government within two days. 

Following the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh into two separate states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, the Union government had re-allotted IAS and IPS officers working in the undivided state to the residuary state (of Andhra Pradesh) and the newly created (Telangana) state. Somesh Kumar, an IAS officer from the 1989 batch in Bihar, was allotted to Andhra Pradesh by the DoPT.

However, Somesh Kumar had moved the CAT and secured an order staying his allotment to Andhra Pradesh cadre. Since then, he continued in Telangana, and went on to become the Chief Secretary in 2019.

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