Kerala govt appoints IAS officer through ex-cadre post, leaving excise cadre post vacant

T'puram: Just weeks after the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) ordered the state govt to comply with cadre rules and end the practice of placing non-IAS officers in IAS cadre posts, the state govt has appointed an IAS officer as excise commissioner — but through a newly created ex-cadre post, leaving the original cadre post vacant and raising fresh questions over compliance with the tribunal’s ruling.The move means that the cadre post of commissioner (excise), which was at the centre of the litigation before the tribunal, continues to remain vacant despite a change in govt. The previous LDF govt left the post unfilled following the removal of IPS officer M R Ajith Kumar and the new UDF govt has also opted against posting an officer to the cadre post itself, instead creating a separate ex-cadre post for the appointment.In an order issued on May 31, the general administration department created an ex-cadre post of excise commissioner and posted Seeram Sambasiva Rao, a 2012-batch IAS officer, to the position. The order states that the ex-cadre post is equivalent to the cadre post of special secretary.The development comes against the backdrop of a long-running legal battle initiated by the Kerala IAS Association against the previous LDF govt’s decision to appoint IPS officers to posts claimed to be earmarked for IAS officers in violation of the IAS Cadre Rules and the Supreme Court’s judgment in TSR Subramanian versus Union of India.In its order delivered on March 6, 2026, CAT recorded that the posts notified as belonging to the Kerala IAS cadre should be filled only by serving IAS officers and that non-IAS officers should not be appointed to such posts.Following the CAT proceedings, IPS officer Ajith Kumar, who held the post of excise commissioner, was removed. However, instead of filling the post with an IAS officer, the previous govt left the cadre post vacant and entrusted its charge to an IPS officer serving as additional excise commissioner.The UDF govt has now appointed an IAS officer. However, the appointment has not been made to the cadre post of commissioner (excise), which is an encadred Level-14 post. Instead, the govt has created a separate Level-13 ex-cadre post and posted the officer there while keeping the cadre post itself vacant.The arrangement has triggered fresh debate within bureaucratic circles, where the issue is being viewed through the prism of the CAT proceedings. Officials familiar with the matter point out that the dispute before the tribunal was not merely about who occupied the office of excise commissioner, but whether a notified IAS cadre post was being filled in accordance with the IAS Cadre Rules. Law department sources said the legal question is likely to centre on whether appointing an IAS officer to a newly created ex-cadre post, while leaving the cadre post unfilled, satisfies the requirements flowing from the CAT judgment and the cadre rules.