Government seeks stay on CAT

HYDERABAD: Stating that there are errors and anomalies in the order given by Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) against the appointment of K Aravinda Rao as Director General of Police (HOPF), the state government on Monday requested the AP High Court to grant a stay on the order.However, the court has posted the matter to Tuesday for further hearing.A divisional bench comprising Chief Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru and Justice Vilas V Afzulpurkar heard the arguments of the counsels appearing for Aravinda Rao and principal secretary (Home) P Gautam Kumar and decided that the matter has to be dealt in detail and hence posted the case to Tuesday.Earlier, the Advocate General A Sudarshan Reddy had informed the divisional bench that there are several errors in the judgment given by CAT and asked for a stay on it. However, Gautam Kumar’s counsel C Mohan Reddy pressed against the grant of stay to the CAT order since it will tantamount to violation of the Supreme Court directions.“The crux of the CAT judgment is to follow the Supreme Court judgment in the Prakash Singh case. The DGP should be selected by the state government only from the empanelled list of three officers given by UPSC,” Mohan Reddy said.During the arguments he asked, “Can a stay be given by the High Court on the directions given by the Supreme Court.” The bench pointed out that at the time of the Prakash Singh judgment, the post of DGP (HOPF) was not there and the directions were meant for the appointment of DGP.Meanwhile, the counsel for Director-General (Vigilance and Enforcement) V Dinesh Reddy said that CAT had failed to mention his name in the list of eligible officers for the post of the DGP despite he being an eligible officer.But Mohan Reddy said that since there are three cadre posts, there can only be three ex-cadre posts.“Dinesh Reddy was ineligible for the post of DGP on on September 1, 2010 when the GO was issued. He was only eligible from November 1 that year,” Mohan Reddy added.