Shifting CAT Bench from Chandigarh to Jammu inconsequential: Tarigami

Date:

Srinagar, June 2: CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami Tuesday said that the decision of Government of India to change the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Bench from Chandigarh to Jammu is inconsequential for a vast majority of stakeholders.


While bringing the issue into the notice of Hon’ble Union MOS, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, he demanded that the sittings of the Bench can be held at multiple locations provided the CAT Bench is available in Srinagar also.

In the letter he informed the Center that its decision of establishment of CAT Bench in Jammu to hear service matters of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has triggered widespread resentment in the region. It is not what people of the region were demanding.

The decision to change the CAT Bench from Chandigarh to Jammu is inconsequential for a vast majority of stakeholders. How will a bench of CAT Jammu do justice to employees in Kashmir, when more than 31,000 cases relating to service matters are already pending in the J&K High Court? Now, 31,641 pending service matters have to be transferred from both wings of the High Court to the tribunal.

In the absence of a permanent bench in Srinagar, litigants will find it difficult to cope with urgent matters given that they are supposed to approach the bench in Jammu. The existing system is no better than Chandigarh based one. Distance and rugged geographical features were the main grounds for seeking CAT Bench in J&K. And ignoring the central location of Srinagar vis -a-vis for Leh, Kargil, Kashmir Valley, and other adjacent areas is an injustice. A single bench of the tribunal would be hopelessly insufficient to provide efficacious dispensation to the disputants in service matters in the UT of J&K as well as in Ladakh. Geographic remoteness, financial constraints and unavailability of internet access will make it very difficult for litigants and lawyers to approach the CAT Bench in Jammu.

Before the reorganisation of J&K, the service issues of state government employees were adjudicated by the J&K high court.  Access to justice is a fundamental right and denial thereof a brazen violation. The provision for CAT Bench at Srinagar alone is a solution.

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