B LWanchoo
Finally a Bench of CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal) has been inaugurated (via video conference) in Jammu on 08 June 2020 by the Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, MoPPG&P, Govt. of India. It is pertinent to mention that though being a judicial body, the CAT comes under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, administratively and not under the Ministry of Law and Justice.
Before the year 1985, Service Matters of Govt. Employees were adjudicated by the District Civil Courts and the same would take years together for final outcome of the case. There had been a persistent demand from Trade Unions and Confederation of Govt. Employees’ Unions, Associations and various other Federations of Govt. Employees, for establishment of a Tribunal exclusively for adjudication of service matters. Such Tribunals were already working satisfactorily in various Europeans countries. The concept of creation of Tribunal for service matters in India was initially raised and propagated by V.V. Giri, Former President of India, when he was an active and a famous trade Unionist, before actively joining politics. Giving a practical shape to this concept was delayed due to various factors, although the then Govt. was not averse to establishment of a Tribunal for service matters. Ultimately in November 1985, the CAT came into existence by passing of a Parliamentary Act in the parliament of our country.
All in all, seventeen Benches were established across the country. The Principal Bench at New Delhi consists of 6 benches, including one bench headed by the Chairman CAT. However, for the last many years, because of the vacancies of the judges, maximum 4-5 benches have practically been functioning there.
The list of the 17 benches is as below:
1. Principal Bench New Delhi & NCR
2. Chandigarh Earlier having jurisdiction of the States of J&K, Punjab, HP, Haryana and UT of Chandigarh
3. Jodhpur Western parts of Rajasthan
4. Jaipur Eastern parts of Rajasthan
5. Allahabad Western parts of UP and Uttarakhand
6. Lucknow Eastern & Central parts of UP
7. Jabalpur Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
8. Calcutta West Bengal, Sikkim, and Andaman & Nicobar
9. Guwahati Assam and all other NE States
10. Cuttack Orissa
11. Ahmedabad Gujarat
12. Bombay Maharashtra, Goa, UT of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and UT of Daman & Diu
13. Bangalore Karnataka
14. Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
15. Madras Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (now Puducherry)
16. Ernakulam Kerala and UT of Lakshadweep
17. Patna Bihar & Jharkhand
And now, the 18th bench is the Jammu Bench – having jurisdiction of UT of J&K and Ladakh.
After the reorganization of J&K State in August 2019 as UT of J&K and UT of Ladakh, the need for a separate Bench for adjudication of service matters of the State Govt. employees of J&K and Ladakh was seriously felt because till then the service matters of State Govt. employees were directly being adjudicated by J&K High Court since Central Govt. laws were not applicable to the State. However, the service matters of Central Govt. Employees were already being dealt by the Chandigarh Bench of the CAT. With the proposed transfer of pending State Govt. employees’ service matters would have overburdened the Chandigarh Bench which is already catering to the needs of the employees of the States of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh as well as UT of Chandigarh. Besides it would not have been practically feasible and financially viable for the employees of J&K and Ladakh to go to attend their cases in Chandigarh Bench. Although initially there was a proposal that a Circuit Bench of Chandigarh bench will be permanently stationed at Jammu. The proposal was opposed vehemently by lawyers as well as litigants due to the aforementioned reasons.
However, it is laudable that with the personal efforts and interest of Minister, Dr. Jitendra Singh and the cooperation extended by Justice L. Narasimha Reddy, Chairman CAT that an independent Bench of CAT has now been established at Jammu.
Approx. 34,000 pending cases pertaining to service matters are under the process of transfer from Hon’ble High Court of J&K to the CAT Bench of Jammu with the setting up and inauguration of CAT Bench in Jammu with such a fanfare.
Presently one Division Bench has been created and a Building at Wazarat Road, Jammu has been allotted for the functioning of this Bench. Few members of the staff from Chandigarh Bench and Principal Bench, New Delhi have been temporarily positioned in this Bench by the Chairman CAT to make it functional. In addition to one permanent Bench, another temporary Bench has been positioned by the Chairman CAT under his own powers as he is empowered to make an additional Bench of one Member (Judicial) and one Member (Admn) at any place in view of the pendency of the cases. Therefore, presently two Benches shall be functional at the Jammu Bench.
The overall position of the functioning of CAT Principal Bench and other Benches is not as good as it appears, because overall 30-40% of the vacancies of Judges lies vacant in the CAT for the last so many years. In the absence of functioning of all Benches, the pendency of the cases is piling up year by year. With the efforts of the present Chairman CAT, disposal of the pending cases has been remarkably achieved to a great extent. Presently in Principal Bench cases pertaining to the year 2015 are coming up for the final hearing.
Even after the final disposal of the matter either the petitioner or the respondents challenge the orders of the CAT before respective High Courts and in certain cases the cases are referred back to the CAT respective Benches with some observations, for re-hearing.
Cases pertaining to the employees’ grievances are properly classified as concerning seniority, Promotions, Disciplinary proceeding, Penalty, Retiral benefits, selection, appointment, transfer etc.
It has also been observed that there is a trend of forcing a Govt. employee to approach the CAT for such small issues which could have been resolved effectively by application of mind at the appropriate level in the bureaucracy based on DoPT Rules, being nodal ministry of Central Govt. for regulating the service matters of the employee as well as the precedents based on the Supreme Court Judgements. But it has been observed that at the lower level or the dealing-hand level itself, the employees are advised to approach the CAT for amelioration of their grievances and get a favourable order then only their grievance can be resolved by the department, as they do not want to take the trouble of applying the Supreme Court Judgements and suggest the same to the Competent Authority so that the grievance of the employees could be solved at the department level itself.
It is not a pessimist thinking but a reality that just by establishing CAT Bench at Jammu will not work like a magic wand to adjudicate the 34,000 pending service matters to be transferred from Hon’ble High Court of J&K to the Jammu Bench of CAT as well as the future new cases that may come up by way of fresh filing. However, it will certainly pave the way for timely and inexpensive dispensation of justice as was envisaged at the time of setting up the CAT Benches at various places of the country in 1985, which needs to be appreciated.
(The writer is an Advocate and formerly Dy. Registrar CAT, Principal Bench.)
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