PNS|Hyderabad
The Telangana High Court has ordered a halt to promotions in the state’s power utilities – TS Transco, Genco, SPDCL and NPDCL – pending a review of seniority issues linked to promotions granted after the formation of Telangana State on June 2, 2014.
The court directed that, following the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court and earlier High Court rulings, the promotions awarded post-state formation must be reviewed within eight weeks, specifically addressing the seniority rights of BC and OC employees who may have been adversely affected by reservation-based promotions granted to SC and ST employees.
The petition was filed by Kodapaka Kumara Swamy, the state President of the Telangana Vidyut BC Employees Welfare Association, and Muthyam Venkanna Goud, the Convenor of the Telangana Vidyut BC and OC Employees’ Joint Action Committee.
The case came up for hearing on Monday before Justice Namavarapu Rajeshwar Rao.
Senior counsel Goda Shiva, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the management of the power utilities had granted thousands of promotions on an ad-hoc basis without adhering to High Court, Supreme Court, or state government directives, resulting in hundreds of BC and OC employees being denied rightful promotions.
He emphasised that unless the court issued time-bound directives, there would be no opportunity for a review of the already granted promotions.
The counsel representing the management urged the court not to issue interim orders, citing a pending review
petition on the matter.
After hearing the arguments of both sides, the judge observed that more than seven years had passed since the Division Bench issued directions in 2018. The court ordered that no further promotions should be granted in all power utilities until the petition pending before a different bench is disposed of.
Welcoming the High Court’s order, Kodapaka Kumara Swamy, the Chairman of the Telangana Vidyut BC and OC Employees’ Joint Action Committee, Vice Chairman R. Sudhakar Reddy, Convenor Muthyam Venkanna Goud, and Co-Convenor C. Bhanu Prakash urged the management to immediately initiate a review of promotions to ensure justice.
They pointed out that earlier mismanagement in promotions had led to losses of hundreds of crores during the bifurcation of employees between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They said that the Telangana secretariat had already complied with the High Court’s orders by reviewing promotions, and a similar exercise is underway in Andhra Pradesh.
