J&K only place to get two CATs
Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Nov 23: Union Minister of State and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh today inaugurated a separate bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) at Srinagar to deal exclusively with service matters of Government employees.
While the CAT Bench at Jammu started functioning last year and now Srinagar Bench has been made functional. The Minister said with today’s historic decision, now all three important agencies of DoPT- CAT, CIC and CVC are fully functional in J&K and Ladakh.
Dr Jitendra said Jammu and Kashmir is the only UT in the country to have two CAT benches and this is because Prime Minister Narendra Modi accords special priority to J&K and he takes a keen interest in the matters and issues related to the new Union Territory.
He said, two benches for J&K will go a long way in not only reducing the burden of various Courts, but would also provide to the persons covered by the Administrative Tribunals speedy relief in respect of their grievances and service matters. Click here to watch video
Dr Jitendra informed that the jurisdiction of Jammu Bench of CAT extends up to 10 districts of UT of J&K and one district (Leh) from UT of Ladakh, while the jurisdiction of Srinagar Bench extends up to 10 districts of UT of J&K and one district (Kargil) from UT of Ladakh.
A Judicial Member, DS Mahra, has also the support of officers and staff have been deputed at Srinagar Bench to manage its functioning.
The Minister said that Modi Government is committed to transparency and “Justice for All” and the people friendly reforms taken in the last seven years have benefitted the entire country including the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
He said that more than 800 Central laws, which were not applicable to J&K have been made applicable since the abolition of Articles 370 and 35-A on 5th August 2019 for the benefit of people of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh and now they enjoy same rights as people from the rest of India.
Dr Jitendra said, with the notification of Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 on August 13th, 2021, the process for filling up of vacancies of Members in CAT has been started. Presently, the post of Chairman, CAT is occupied by Manjula Das and it has been the constant endeavour of the Government to strengthen the infrastructure in all the Benches of CAT for their smooth functioning.
Referring to high disposal rate of cases, the Minister informed that since its inception in 1985 and upto June this year, the Central Administrative Tribunal received 8,56,069 cases for adjudication (including those transferred from High Courts), out of which 7,86,647cases have been disposed of, leaving a pendency of 69,422 cases. On average, more than 91.89% of the cases instituted are disposed, he added.
It may be recalled that after the abrogation of the Article 370, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh became two separate Union Territories and accordingly employees of erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir became the employees of the Union Territories. As such the disputes pertaining to their service matters are now being adjudicated by CAT. At the time of inauguration of CAT Jammu Bench 30,000 service matters were pending including17363 received from High court. Out of received 17363 cases, CAT Jammu has disposed 4371 cases (2452 of Srinagar Wing and 1919 of Jammu Wing).
As of now, 12992 cases are pending (7610 of Srinagar Wing and 5382 of Jammu Wing), 7610 cases are being sent to CAT Srinagar from CAT Jammu. Almost 13000 cases are still in High court which will come to CAT.
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