New Delhi: The Telangana High Court has asked the state government to explain why officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) have been posted to key positions designated for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers.
Justice Surepally Nanda sought a response from the government Monday after taking up a writ petition filed by Hyderabad-based lawyer and social activist Vadla Srikanth. The petition argued that appointing IPS officers in positions for IAS officers violated All India Service (Cadre) Rules, 1954, which delineate the roles that officers of the two premier civil services are to be appointed to.
The petition mentioned three posts currently occupied by IPS officers in Telangana— Stephen Ravindra, serving as the Commissioner of Civil Supplies and Ex-Officio Principal Secretary to the government; Director General of Vigilance and Enforcement and Ex-Officio Principal Secretary (General Administration Department) Shikha Goel; and former Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand, who is currently the Special Chief Secretary, Home Department.
The petitioner said these appointments not only violate service norms, but also disturb the balance between different All India Services.
While IAS officers are trained in public administration, governance, policy formulation, district- and state-level administration, and coordination with elected representatives, IPS officers are trained in matters of policing, crime control, intelligence, law enforcement and security management.
The domains of the two services, the petition says, are completely different.
The Telangana government has been given time until 10 December by the High Court to file its response, explaining the rationale for these appointments. The state’s top officials, including the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary (GAD), have been made respondents in the case too and will have to file counter-affidavits.
The court’s decision over the petition could have far-reaching consequences on a practice that isn’t uncommon across the country, and has been a recurring flashpoint between IAS and IPS officers.
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What the rules say
According to a senior IAS officer, the posts of principal secretaries in state governments are reserved exclusively for IAS officers just the way the posts of deputy inspector general (DIG) is reserved for IPS officers, and deputy conservator of forests (DCF) is for Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers.
“Just the way an IAS cannot be posted as a DIG or a DCF, the same way an IPS or an IFoS cannot be posted as a principal secretary to the state government—except under rare circumstances,” the officer, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
“There has to be grave exigency for this to happen, like a severe shortage of officers… In that case, the state government can appoint a non-cadre officer on a cadre post for a period of three months without the Centre’s approval,” the officer said.
The officer added: “For anything more than three months, prior approval of the Centre has to be taken.”
According to the IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954, a “cadre officer” is defined as a member of the Indian Administrative Service, and a “cadre post” can only be filled by a cadre officer.
The rules provide for temporary posting of non-cadre officers in cadre posts.
“A cadre post in a state shall not be filled by a person who is not a cadre officer except if there is no suitable cadre officer available for filling the vacancy; provided that when a suitable cadre officer becomes available, the non-cadre officer shall be replaced by the cadre officer,” the rules say.
Even after Centre gives its approval for appointments lasting beyond three months, another process is mandated under the law if the position is occupied by a non-cadre official for over six months.
“Where a cadre post is filled by a non-cadre officer for a period exceeding six months, the central government shall report the full facts to the Union Public Service Commission with the reasons and give suitable direction to the state government concerned on the advice of the Commission,” the rules say.
Other posts like those of district magistrates are also cadre posts reserved for the IAS.
Rules routinely flouted
While most appointments follow the convention, the rules are routinely flouted by state governments.
In a letter written to the chief secretaries of all the states in 2020, the Union Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said that “instances have come to the notice of the Government of India in which State Governments posted a non-cadre officer to cadre post without following due procedure as per IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954”.
Another recent example was the transfers of IAS and IPS officers in Haryana earlier this week. The state government replaced at least two IPS officers—Navdeep Singh Virk and Kala Ramachandran—who were occupying “cadre posts” of the IAS as commissioner of the sports department, and commissioner of the heritage and tourism department. The positions have now been assigned to IAS officers.
Centre, in 2021, pulled up the Haryana government for cases of IPS, IFS and Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers being given positions reserved for IAS officers.
In Maharashtra too, top posts such as heads of municipal corporations, important government bodies and departments, have been occupied by non-IAS officers.
The same year it warned Haryana, Centre also pulled up the Maharashtra government in 2021 over appointing non-IAS officers to head municipal corporations in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
In 2020, Centre had also sought an explanation from the Nagaland government for posting non-IAS officers as district collectors/magistrates in six of its 11 districts despite there being no scarcity of IAS officers in the state.
‘A police state’
The IAS officer quoted above said non-cadre appointments shouldn’t be allowed to go unchecked.
“This is a dangerous phenomenon. The police service is always more politically inclined than IAS officers. If home secretaries in states are from the IPS, and so is the DGP (director general of police), where is the balance of power? It’s the recipe for a police state,” the officer said.
This occurrence wasn’t just limited to states, the officer said, adding that the numbers of IAS officers at the central level were declining too.
ThePrint reported last year that of the 236 officers serving as joint secretaries (JS) as of October 2024, only 80 were IAS officers. This made up for just over 33 percent of joint secretaries serving in the central government.
In a confidential letter to all Cadre Controlling Authorities (CCA) in March this year, the Cabinet Secretariat asked CCAs to consider IPS, IFoS and officers belonging to various other Organised Central Group ‘A’ Services for empanelment as secretaries and additional secretaries to the Government of India.
While no reason was provided for the request in the letter, a second IAS officer said the move could potentially threaten positions of IAS officers at the very top. “The positions of secretaries are always held by IAS officers. For the government to now actively ask for the empanelment of non-IAS officers in these positions, signals that this too will change very soon, the officer said.
Organised Central Group A refers to officers of Central Civil Services, a cadre exclusively for the central government. Groups A, B, C and D refer to the hierarchy of positions, with A and B categorised as higher-level positions.
CCAs are bodies/departments that direct, regulate and oversee a cadre’s administration and its personnel.
K.B.S Sidhu, a retired IAS officer, said the Central has no concept of “cadre posts”. It is instead by convention that IAS officers have dominated key positions at the central level of joint secretaries, secretaries, etc, he said.
“Centre’s appointments are already mired in opacity because of non-statutory empanelment process. Now, the government can empanel whichever service officer it wants, and that’s what it is doing now,” he added.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)