New Delhi, May 13 (IANS): The Centre on Monday moved a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's order quashing the cadre allocation of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers of the 2018 batch. The apex court will hear the matter on May 17.

The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna for urgent hearing.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that the High Court had asked the government to do from scratch the whole exercise of allocation of the cadre. He also told the apex court the candidates had already undergone training and they were scheduled to join their respective cadres from May 10.

On May 6, the Delhi High Court overturned the cadre allocation associated with the IAS and IPS officers of the 2018 batch.

The officers who had qualified had moved the Delhi High Court challenging a notification by the Centre, regarding the allocation of cadre to the IPS candidates on the basis of the results declared for the Civil Services Examination, 2017.

The officers claimed that preferences regarding the allocation of cadre were not followed for candidates who ranked higher in the 2017 exam. But those who ranked lower were allocated cadre according to their choice.