SC upholds repatriation of Class III, IV transport corporation staff to parental zones in Telangana on bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the 2017 decision for repatriation of Class III and IV employees of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation to their parental zones in Telangana following 2014 bifurcation of unified Andhra Pradesh.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Pankaj Mithal allowed an appeal filed by AP State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) against the high court's 2019 judgement, which directed for permanent allocation of the respondents' conductors, drivers and shramiks, in their deputational posts falling in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

"There is no dispute about the fact that the respondents were recruited at the regional level and belong to the successor state corporation in which the region falls," the bench said.

With the statutory mandate, read with the 2017 guidelines on allocation of employees, the respondents staff will continue their employment in the same region, which is under the present TSRTC, the bench declared.

After the bifurcation of the state, the court noted the Board of Directors with members from the central government, states of Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana prepared the agenda note on August 16, 2017, which set out the allocation of various kinds of employees between APSRTC and TSRTC.

The Board has decided that Class III and Class IV employees, who are appointed at the regional level, are to be allocated to the corporation in which the region falls after bifurcation, the bench pointed out.

In its judgment on Friday, the bench said the high court's division bench failed to note that the employees who were on deputation were not absorbed in the deputed posts and in fact, their seniority is continued in their parental zones.

The court also said that the high court failed to consider Section 82 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 which clearly stated that the corporations would determine the modalities for distributing their employees between the successor states, which were determined in 2017 agenda note.

The bench further noted that the respondents' employees have returned to this parent cadre in the state of Telangana as this court had stayed the division bench order in 2020 which continued till date.

The court said the respondents' employees did not challenge the validity of guidelines on allocations of employees but only questioned the validity of the notification on repatriation and the consequent orders passed by Depot Managers by writ petitions before the high court.