AP Intermediate Board should prepare staff seniority lists: HC

Writ petition filed by three employees

The Telangana High Court has directed the Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education to prepare the final seniority lists of employees of all categories as on June 2, 2014, within two months for allocation of employees between the Intermediate boards of AP and Telangana.

A bench of justices M.S. Ramachandra Rao and T. Vinod Kumar pronounced this verdict in a writ petition filed by three employees seeking division of employees of the BIE of erstwhile AP between Intermediate boards of AP and Telangana. The judgment said the two boards, based on seniority lists, should discuss with each other and agree on the modalities for allocation of employees.

The division of employees must be done within a month of finalisation of the modalities. The bench clarified that limitation period of one year prescribed under Section 82 of AP Reorganisation Act for finalising modalities for distribution of employees was not mandatory. It also held that failure to complete apportionment of the assets and liabilities of the entities of IX and X Schedules would have no bearing on distribution of employees.

The bench observed that the BIE of the combined state of AP stood on the same footing as AP State Residential Educational Institutions Society of the undivided state of AP. The principles of the society apply to the BIE of undivided AP. The bench observed that Section 82 of AP Reorganisation Act required the corporate bodies themselves to decide upon the modalities for distribution of employees between the two States. Each of the corporate bodies can act independently and on its own fix up norms for distribution of employees.

The writ petition was filed by three employees of superintendent rank. They contended that they belonged to Telangana, being born and educated in Hyderabad. But the BIE of Telangana issued proceedings on December 24, 2014, drafting their names for allocation to the BIE of AP.

They claimed that they were promoted to the cadre of superintendents before separate Telangana was created. But the BIE of Telangana in its proceedings issued on December 15, 2015, included several juniors to them as superintendents while excluding them. They gave representations that they be allocated to BIE of Telangana by virtue of their local status.

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