*Imposes Rs 50,000 fine, orders inquiry
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 21: Taking serious note of inaction despite lapse of more than one decade, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Jammu has passed strictures against the School Education Department for not respecting its orders and imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the erring official. Moreover, the Tribunal has directed the Principal Secretary of the department to hold an inquiry to ascertain the reasons as to why replies are not being filed in the cases in time and take appropriate action against the erring officials/officers.
Initially, the applicant—Meenu Sharma had approached the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir for redressal of her service related grievance by filing SWP No. 1174 of 2009. Later, vide Notification No. GSR 267 (E) dated 29.04.2020 read with Notification No. GSR 317 (E) dated 28.05.2020 issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training), the jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the service disputes of the employees of the UT of J&K and Ladakh was conferred upon Central Administrative Tribunal.
While considering this, record of Service Writ Petition No. 1174 of 2009 was ordered to be transferred by the High Court to CAT Jammu on 15.06.2020. On receipt of service record, the matter was registered as Transferred Application No. 832 of 2020. However, from the perusal of the record it came to the fore that reply was not filed in the matter when the case was pending before the High Court.
When this matter was taken up by CAT Jammu, vide orders dated 03.08.2021 and 01.10.2021, the respondents were granted four weeks time to file the reply. On 22.11.2022, last opportunity of three weeks time was granted to the respondents and the matter was adjourned.
When the matter was again taken upon on 13.07.2023, the CAT observed: “A period of more than a decade has expired but no written statement has been filed by the respondents till date. Sudesh Magotra, Additional Advocate General has, however, still prayed for some more time to file the written statement. In the interest of justice, one more opportunity is granted to respondents to file their written statement subject to payment of cost of Rs 10,000 which shall be recovered from the salary bills of the erring official/officer concerned at whose instance the delay in filing the written statement is being caused”.
When the case was taken up three days back, it was informed by counsel for the applicant Advocate Akash Chowdhary that neither cost has been deposited nor the reply has been filed.
After hearing counsel for the applicant and Additional Advocate General Sudesh Magotra, Member Judicial of CAT Jammu Rajinder Singh Dogra observed, “it appears that either the respondents are oblivious of their duties or they do not have any reason to oppose the cause of the applicant”, adding “from the inaction of the respondents in filing the reply in spite of granting several opportunities, it seems that the respondents have no respect for the orders of this Tribunal and the concerned official/officer who is responsible for filing the reply thinks he is above the law”.
“It has often been observed since long time that in every third case pertaining to School Education Department, the respondents have failed to file the reply despite having been granted adequate opportunities to do so”, the Member Judicial said, adding “most of these cases were filed before the High Court more than a decade ago. This Tribunal has taken a very serious note of this inaction of the respondents”.
“However, in the interest of justice, again one last opportunity of three weeks time is granted to the respondents to file reply subject to payment of cost of Rs 50,000 which shall be recovered from the erring officer/official concerned”, the CAT said and directed the Director School Education, Jammu to remain present before the Tribunal on the next date of hearing to explain the reasons for non-filing of reply in the matter.
The CAT has also directed the Principal Secretary, School Education Department to hold an inquiry to ascertain the reasons as to why replies are not being filed in the cases in time (some of which are pending for the last more than 10 years) and take appropriate action against the erring officials/officers.
“The action report be filed on or by the next date of hearing–07.03.2024”, read the order. Moreover, the CAT has directed the Registry to send copy of order to the Secretary, School Education Department and Chief Secretary for information and necessary action.
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