Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Shri V Narayansamy said that there is an urgent need to strengthen Central Administrative Tribunal( CAT) and make it more effective. Speaking as Special Guest at the daylong All India Conference of the members of Central Administrative Tribunal here today he said to streamline the functioning of Administrative Tribunals, a proposal to amend Administrative Tribunal Act 1985 is under active consideration of the Government. The Minister said one of the main amendments proposed is to authorize Chairman of the Administrative Tribunals to delegate his powers regarding Transfer petitions. The Bill was referred to the Department related Parliament Standing Committee and the Committee has submitted its report on the proposed amendments. He also informed the conference that another proposal to bring about uniformity of tenure, service conditions etc. of the members of all judicial tribunals is under consideration of the Government. “To evolve a consensus on these issues, an Inter Ministerial Group has been set up” the Minister added.
Commending the achievements of the CAT Shri Narayansamy said “ There is still room for improvement in its efficiency. It is observed that by the end of January,2013, 805 cases were pending for more than five years. We should definitely look into this aspect and try to minimize such pendency. I would, therefore, request the Chairman and members of the tribunal to accelerate the pace of disposal of cases.”
The conference was presided by Union Minister of Law and Justice Dr. Ashwani Kumar. He said that CAT has come a long way since its inception and now the need of the hour is to handle so many cases lying pending with more efficiency. Chief Justice of India, Mr. Justice Altamas Kabir as Chief Guest assured that more Government employees would be in a position to get speedy justice for their grievances. Mr. Justice Syed Rafat Alam, Chairman CAT, assured that CAT would now try its level best to reduce the disposal time of the case from two years to one calendar year or lesser time.
The main purpose of the Conference was to deliberate on certain issues concerning the Tribunal and to improve the working conditions of the institution and also to chalk out various measures to be adopted to arrest the pendency of cases. The Central Administrative Tribunal came into existence in November 1985 and is entrusted with the task of adjudicating complaints and other service matters pertaining to the Central Government employees as well as employees of PSUs and organizations so notified under Section 14 (2) of the Act by the Government.
The day long conference is being attended by all the 65 members from the 17 regular Benches and the Principal Bench of CAT.
