India, March 30 -- In a significant ruling, the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) has partly allowed a petition challenging the deputation of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers to key posts in the state education department, while directing the state government to explore assigning additional charge to eligible departmental officers within six weeks.

The order, delivered on March 27 by a bench comprising chairman Mangesh S Patil and member A M Kulkarni, comes on an application filed under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, by 10 officers from the state education service (group A, administrative branch). The applicants had challenged the deputation of three IAS officers to the posts of director/chairman in the educa...