Administrative Tribunals

Jay Shree Ram! Welcome to this blog on Administrative Tribunals. The objective of this blog is to discuss about the administrative tribunals in Bharat. 

Administrative Tribunals

The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976 added Articles 323-A and 323-B to the Constitution of India. These articles empower the Parliament to set up tribunals for adjudication of specialised disputes. The range of disputes mentioned in the Constitution refers to:

1) disputes pertaining to service conditions of the government officers,

2) collection and enforcement of tax,

3) industrial and labour disputes,

4) matters concerning land reforms,

5) elections disputes,

6) ceiling on urban property, and

7) production, procurement, supply and distribution of food-stuffs or other essential goods.

Thus the 42nd Amendment Act ushered the era of ‘tribunalisation of Indian judiciary’. Further, the enactment of Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 took the constitutional objective further and set-up the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and State Administrative Tribunals. The CAT was set up pursuant to the Act of the Legislature in 1985. The tribunals exercise jurisdiction of service matters of employees covered by it. The appeals against the orders of the administrative tribunals lie before the Division bench of the concerned High Court. The tribunals are procedurally flexible and this flexibility increases their efficiency. For example, The Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 allows the aggrieved persons to appear directly before the tribunals. [1]

The overall objectives of the tribunals are to provide speedy and inexpensive justice to the litigants. Since government is a major litigant in the courts and government related litigation has increased in the delay and pendency of litigation, such tribunals over the past two decades have significantly contributed in supplementing the role of the courts in adjudication of service disputes. The tribunals however are not meant to replace the Courts. This has been explained by the seven judge bench of the Supreme Court in L Chandra Kumar case (JT 1997 (3) SC 589) where it was held that tribunals would not take away the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts, and their decisions could be scrutinised by the Division bench of the High Courts. [1]

One may also note that these administrative and state tribunals are not an original invention of the Indian political and legal system. Such tribunals are now well established in the member countries of the European Union and the United States. [1]

1) Today, CAT has 17 regular benches, 15 of which operate at the principal seats of High Courts and the remaining two at Jaipur and Lucknow. [1]

2) The tribunal consists of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Members. [1]

3) The members of the tribunal are drawn both from judicial as well as administrative streams so as to give the tribunal the benefit of expertise both in legal and administrative spheres. [1]

Reference:

1) CBSE Class XII Legal Studies