High Court need not be so apprehensive; letters between highly placed dignitaries are not made public: CAT chairman
SRINAGAR: A controversy has erupted over Chief Justice Gita Mittal’s letter to the Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Jitendra Singh for seeking permanent benches of the Common Administrative Tribunal(CAT)in J&K, with Tribunal’s chairman Justice L. Narasimha Reddy saying “disposal of the cases is the responsibility of the Tribunal and the High Court need not to be so apprehensive”.
He has also taken exception to making contents of the letter public and even claimed that Jitendra Singh had informed him that he has not received the letter from CJ.
In a statement, available with the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), CAT chairman Justice L. Narasimha Reddy said “the establishment of Benches at various places and to ensure disposal of the cases is the responsibility of the Tribunal and the High Court need not be so apprehensive.”
The CAT chairman has also said that “one cannot expect full-fledged functioning of the Benches of the Tribunal straight away particularly when the cases are yet to be transferred from the High Court”.
“The Tribunal has 33 Benches across the Country and depending on the pendency before each Bench and the need to establish Benches at various places, adjustments are taking place from time to time. Once the accommodation is made available and cases are transferred from the High Court, it would be the responsibility of the Tribunal to take care of the situation,” he said .
The CAT chairman has also said that “DO letter happens to be the communication between its author and the addressee and it is not made public particularly when it is between highly placed Dignitaries”.
“Since the News item was only about establishment of the Benches, and is a matter of relevance for the Central Administrative Tribunal, I contacted the Hon’ble Minister to know about the subject. He informed me that he did not receive the letter either in the form of a hard copy or through e-mail,” he said.
Justice L. Narasimha Reddy has also said that “Bar & Bench” were indeed not called for and at any rate, were not a matter of concern for the High Court”. He said repeated requests made to the government of erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir for accommodation did not yield any positive result.
“I may mention that the pendency of the cases in the Circuit Benches at Srinagar and Jammu before the State was re-organised was just 140. The Circuit Benches used to be held periodically. Last year I conducted one of the hearing along with an Administrative Member at Srinagar and Jammu.
The hearing took place in a room of 8’ X 10’ size in a corner of the Office of the Deputy Commissioner. Even a II Class Judicial Magistrate Court would not function in such premises. The situation in Jammu was slightly better,” he said.
Before re-organisation of Jammu and Kashmir, CAT was only empowered to hear service matters of central government employees in J&K. The CAT chairman said after re-organisation of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, the request for accommodation was considered and offer of the places was also made. “Before any tangible steps could be taken, the COVID-19 lockdown has occurred,” he said.
It is worthwhile to mention that chief Justice Gita Mittal had written to Dr. Jitendra Singh, seeking establishment of Central Administrative Tribunal with multiple benches having permanent seats both at Jammu as well as Srinagar.
All major political parties and lawyers are also demanding separate regular benches of CAT in J&K.