Chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi, V.K. Bali on Monday emphasised the need for doing away with the power of the High Courts to review orders of the tribunals.
Inaugurating the silver jubilee celebrations of the Central Administrative Tribunals (CAT) organised by the Ernakulam Bench, he said tribunals were established as a substitute and not as supplement to the High Courts in the scheme of administration of justice. He said that after the Supreme Court ruling in 1997 in the L. Chandra Kumar case, the three-tier system of litigation was back to square one. The Supreme Court had held that the power of the High Courts to review judicially the CAT orders could not be taken away by a statute. He said the ruling had defeated the very purpose for which the Administrative Tribunal Act was brought into force.
It was enacted to provide inexpensive and speedy justice to Central government employees. Earlier, a litigant employee had to wait years for getting a verdict from the High Courts.
Thus, the good work done by the tribunals was of no consequences and remedy offered by the Act remained elusive. The government's interest was also affected since there was no finality even in a matter where the government's action was upheld by a Tribunal. He said amendments could be brought to the Constitution and Administrative Tribunal Act for taking away the power of the High Court to review orders of the tribunals.
Kerala High Court judge P.R. Raman, M. Ramachandran, former vice-chairman of the CAT, Principal Bench, and George Paracken, Judicial Member, CAT, Ernakulam Bench, spoke. K. Thankappan, Judicial Member, CAT, Ernakulam Bench, welcomed the gathering. M.A. Shafik, president, CAT Advocates' Association, proposed the vote of thanks.
