Deepali Kalia –
The Orissa High Court on June 7th upheld the notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training of the Central Government dated 2nd August 2019 which dissolved the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT).
“It appears that with passage of time in the experimental phase of ATs (Administrative Tribunals), a call had to be taken by many of the State Governments about the efficacy of continuing with the SATs based on their performance and the outcomes. They have tried the experiment for over three decades and feel the need for a change. It may not be proper for the High Court to decide to overturn that decision only because a different view is possible. Again from the point of view of the litigant unless the ‘bypass’ of a Tribunal is as good as the ‘highway’ of a High Court, the assurance of equal and fair justice may be rendered illusory.” The Court observed in its order.
It was noted by a division bench comprising of Chief Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice B.P. Routray that there was sufficient material which supported the State government’s view about OAT not fulfilling its aim of delivering speedy justice to the litigants.
The Court passed the order while hearing a bunch of petitions which challenged the notification filed by the Bar Associations of the OAT in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, Odisha Retired Police Officers’ Welfare Association and other individuals.
The OAT was established by the Centre through a notification dated 4th July, 1986 published in the Gazette of India. It started operating from 14th July 1986.
In furtherance of the judgment by 7 judge Constitution Bench of Apex Court in L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India AIR 1997 SC 1125, which held that Clause 2(d) of Article 323-A and Clause 3(d) of Article 323-B, to the degree they exclude the jurisdiction of the High Courts and the Supreme Court ,under Articles 226/227 and 32 of the Constitution are unconstitutional, many State Administrative Tribunals were dissolved.
On 9th September 2015, the State of Odisha Cabinet approved the proposal of dissolution of OAT.
The government of Odisha stated that appropriate measures will be taken to further strengthen the High Court by increasing the judgeship in order to deal with the additional workload after the dissolution of OAT.
“Further, considering that there are SATs still functioning only in three or four States in the country, the government employees in a majority of the States have to approach the concerned High Court in the first instance for redressal of their grievances. It cannot therefore be argued that the abolition of the OAT, resulting in either the transfer of the pending petitions to the High Court, or institution of fresh petitions there as a Court of first instance, undermines access to justice as was sought to be contended. “
“In other words, a parallel cannot be drawn between pursuing a writ petition in the High Court before a Single Judge with pursuing an original application in the OAT. The former remedy would any day be the preferred one for a litigant. Therefore, the contention that by abolition of the OAT there will be denial of access to justice to the litigant is not an acceptable proposition.” The Court stated.
The Court stated that it is “Of the view that no ground has been made out for the Court to interfere with the impugned notification dated 2nd August 2019”, and consequently dismissed all the writ petitions.
