Central Administrative Tribunal-Hyderabad bench on Tuesday declined to grant any relief to IPS officer Abhishek Mohanty who approached it challenging a recent order of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs allocating his cadre to Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Mohanty moved the CAT-Hyderabad seeking a direction to retain his cadre with Telangana State. He has served as Karimnagar Police Commissioner till the Central government issued proceedings allocating him to A.P. Eventually, Telangana government transferred him.

Mr. Mohanty’s counsel P.S. Rajashekhar contended that the officer was born and brought up in Hyderabad of Telangana. His parents hailed from Odisha but that cannot offset his domicile status, the counsel argued, requesting the bench to stay the Centre’s direction allotting Mr. Mohanty to A.P. The advocate cited the recent direction of the CAT bench quashing allotment of cadre of IAS officer Shiv Shankar Lotheti. He explained that earlier the CAT bench had passed an order allocating Mr. Mohanty’s cadre to Telangana. The CAT bench comprising Lata Baswaraj (Member-Judicial) and Shali Mishra (Member-Administration), however, declined to grant immediate relief to the petitioner.

The bench issued notices to the Union government and directed it to file counter affidavit within four weeks in the matter.