IPS officers’ postings challenged in Telangana HC; govt given time to respond

Senior IPS officers C V Anand, Shikha Goel and Stephen Ravindra are currently posted as special chief secretary (home department), principal secretary for general administration department (GAD), and commissioner and principal secretary for civil supplies department, respectively.

The petitioner, Vadla Srikanth, a lawyer and a social activist, challenged the Telangana chief secretary’s action of appointing IPS officers to posts designated for the IAS cadre (specifically, principal secretary positions). In his petition, he sought the court to declare such postings of IPS officers to IAS cadre posts as arbitrary, illegal, and a violation of the Indian Administrative Service Cadre Rules, 1954, and the Indian Administrative Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Amendment Regulations, 2016.

The petitioner also sought to declare the Government Order (GO) Rt. No. 1342, dated September 26, 2025, illegal to the extent of Serial Nos. 2, 3, and 13. The GO concerned the transfers and postings of officers, particularly IPS officers, as part of an administrative reshuffle. The petitioner’s counsel, Vijay Gopal, sought the court’s direction to the chief secretary to remove the said IPS officers from those posts and appoint eligible IAS officers in their place.

Citing alleged past incidents of phone tapping in the state, the counsel added that appointing an IPS officer to an important position such as home secretary will compromise the crucial checks and balances, as the officer in charge of reviewing the work of IPS officers is only one among them. When the counsel sought suspension of the three officers from their current positions, the court deemed it fit to give at least a week’s time to the respondents to file their responses. When the judge probed why IPS officers were being posted to IAS positions, Special Government Pleader S Rahul Reddy, appearing for GAD, sought time to get instructions.