Watsupptoday News Desk
Jammu, 28 May 2020
The Government of India on Thursday constituted 18th Bench of CAT in Jammu for adjudication of 31,913 pending Service Disputes in Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh, which has been notified in the Gazette.
The notification specifically reads that the Jammu Bench would exercise jurisdiction over the whole UT of Jammu Kashmir and the UT of Ladakh which implies that there would be only one bench for two Union Territories.
Advocate General D C Raina has suggested one complex for using as court by CAT at Jammu—the building where earlier Accountability Commission was functional.
The Centre also ordered that benches of CAT shall ordinarily sit at Jammu and Srinagar for hearing service matters of employees of both J&K and Ladakh Union Territories.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (7) of section 5 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 ,the Central Government hereby specifies Jammu and Srinagar as the places at which the Benches of the Central Administrative Tribunal shall ordinarily sit for the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union territory of Ladakh,” reads the notification issued by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension.
The decision comes after political parties and lawyers in J&K slammed the Centre’s move to extend jurisdiction of Chandigarh bench of CAT over UTs carved out from the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir.
In a notification issued on April 29, the Centre ordered that service matters of J&K and Ladakh UTs would be dealt by the CAT’s Chandigarh bench whose mandate was restricted to hearing matters of central government employees in the erstwhile state of J&K.
Before re-organization of J&K, the service matters of the employees of the J&K Government were being adjudicated by Jammu Kashmir High Court.
The Administrative Tribunal Act-1985, which governs creation and functioning of CAT, became applicable to both the UTs from October 31 as per the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act.