Telangana High Court pushes state to implement long-pending Administrative Tribunal order

The petitioners sought the court to order the respondents including the state government, the director of the Department of Ayush and the Principal Secretary for the Medical and Health Department for Andhra Pradesh, to implement a 2012 Tribunal order so that their temporary service counts toward their pension and the 8/16 years Automatic Advancement Scheme benefits (receiving higher pay scales after eight and 16 years of service, even without a formal promotion), based on previous approvals by the High Court and Supreme Court. The petitioners stated the respondents’ refusal to comply with the 2012 Tribunal order was illegal.

The division bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice G M Mohiuddin noted that the core issue stemmed from an earlier Tribunal order, the benefit of which had already been granted to others and attained finality up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had dismissed the state government’s Special Leave Petition on November 18, 2022, following the prior dismissal of a similar petition in 2016.

The court observed that despite the finality of the legal matter, the individual applicants continue to file fresh petitions for implementation, resulting in the issuance of government orders (GOs), such as the one on May 23, 2025, in favour of some applicants. The petitioners in the current case have filed a similar writ petition.

The court noted that despite the legal issue being definitively settled, numerous individuals covered by the original favourable order are still being “compelled to knock on the doors” of the High Court by filing writ petitions seeking its implementation.

Expressing clear dissatisfaction with the administrative delay, the judges stated: “We fail to understand as to when the issue has attained finality up to the Hon’ble Supreme Court, why should individual applicants, who are covered by the original order passed by the learned Tribunal in O.A.No.1807 of 2012, be compelled to knock the doors of this Court for implementation of the order.”

The court granted the counsel for the respondents, which include the State of Andhra Pradesh and service officials, four weeks to present instructions and “if there are no legal hurdles, issue consequential orders for implementation of the decision rendered in the case of the petitioners also on similar lines.” The matter is scheduled to appear next on November 21.