‘Provide befitting space with complete infra to Jammu Bench’
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 2: Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal has sought information from the Union Government regarding establishment of Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) at Srinagar. Moreover, stress has been laid on providing befitting infrastructure to the Tribunal’s Bench at Jammu.
The direction in this regard has been issued in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Aditya Sharma and Another Versus Union of India and Others.
After hearing Senior Advocate Gagan Basotra with Advocate Navdeep Kour for the PIL and Advocate General D C Raina with Additional Advocate General FC Natnoo and Assistant Solicitor General of India (ASGI) Vishal Sharma for the respondents, the DB headed by Chief Justice observed, “this Public Interest Litigation is for constituting and establishing permanent Bench/Benches of the Central Administrative Tribunal in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.
“The record reveals that a Bench of CAT has already been established at Jammu and another is proposed to be established at Srinagar in the Legislative Council building for which some space has already been allotted”, the DB said, adding “the counsel for the petitioners submits that the space provided for the Bench at Jammu and even proposed at Srinagar is not adequate and befitting the status of CAT. It has only one room with no other facility for lawyers and even parking”.
The DB further said, “once the Central Government has decided to establish an institution, it should provide befitting space for it with complete infrastructural facilities such as parking, public lounges, court rooms and administrative blocks etc”.
Accordingly, the DB asked Vishal Sharma, ASGI to have instructions from Central Government in coordination with the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir regarding establishment of CAT Bench at Srinagar and providing all the facilities at both the places.
“The information on both these aspects shall be placed before the court by next date of hearing—February 19, 2021”, the DB directed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Central Government had issued notification under Sub-Section 7 of Section 5 of the Act of 1985 on May 28, 2020, specifying Jammu and Srinagar as the places at which the Benches of the Central Administrative Tribunal shall ordinarily sit for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh and, in pursuance thereof, the Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal started holding sittings at Jammu from June 8, 2020, hearing the cases not only pertaining to the litigants of Jammu, but also the ones belonging to Kashmir as well as Ladakh region.
In the month of December last year, a Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul had hoped that all the difficulties/ encumbrances that may be there on administrative side in the process of establishment of the Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal at Srinagar are removed expeditiously keeping in view the problems being faced by litigants belonging to the Kashmir region in pursuing their cases before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jammu Bench.
“We must be failing in our duty in case we do not take note of the projected grievance qua the non-availability of the Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal at Srinagar which tantamounts to denial of justice to the litigants belonging to the Kashmir region in view of the judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in Rojer Mathew’s case”, the DB had mentioned.
The Apex Court in Rojer Mathew’s case has observed that having Tribunals without Benches in at least the capitals of States and Union Territories amounts to denial of justice to citizens of those States and Union Territories which makes the entire justice delivery system very metropolis centric having many adverse effects.
“At present the CAT Bench at Jammu has only one permanent member and following resumption of offline hearing of cases the Union Government would consider deployment of more members depending upon the pendency of cases”, sources said, adding “providing befitting infrastructure to existing CAT Bench at Jammu and proposed Bench at Srinagar is purely the domain of the Union Territory Government and efforts are on to put in place the same”.
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