THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT), set up a year ago on the lines of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for dealing with the government employees’ cases is yet to take off, allegedly owing to the lukewarm approach from the State government resulting in a loss of around ` 75 crore to the state exchequer per year. Further, the delay in operation is affecting the very functioning of the state administration. The Cabinet requesting the Central Government and the Chief Justice of India for repealing two judicial members from the KAT has come as a rude shock. The three High Court benches which deal with around three lakh cases involving the government employees, amounts to one third of the total number of cases. It was expected that the formation of KAT with Thiruvananthapuram as headquarters, would unburden the High Court. The State Government in 2007, had estimated that it was incurring a loss of around Rs 50 crore a year on travelling allowance alone to employees commuting between Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. Also it has been pointed out that when the higher officials absents themselves from office for three days to appear in court, it results in piling up of files. The KAT will have three benches of which two will be based here and one in Kochi to handle the cases from north Kerala. A statutory committee consisting of Chief Justice of Kerala High Court, Chief Secretary, Chairmen of the KAT and Public Service Commission had selected P V Asha and Ashok Mammen Cherian as the judicial members. But on June 15, the Cabinet decided to request the Centre and Chief Justice of India to recall these two members. ‘This is illegal and the government is acting beyond its powers,” says M Vijayakumar, former Minister for Law. The LDF Government had set up KAT with Justice K Balakrishnan Nair as the Chairman on August 25 last year under the State Administrative Tribunal Act. Old Collectorate building at Vanchiyoor has been selected as its head quarters. Six members, comprising three judicial members and three non-judicial members were appointed. Around 30 staff members were also deputed out of the 110 posts sanctioned for the Tribunal. Meanwhile, the High Court Advocates Association had filed a case in June last challenging the formation of KAT, which was dismissed by the Kerala High Court, since it was a policy decision of the State Government. The decision to have the principal bench in Thiruvananthapuram was also justified. An appeal in this case is now pending before the Supreme Court. The State Government has now replaced the counsel, Liz Mathew with Beena Madhavan. The Opposition is alleging foul play in this. “The government has a hidden agenda in this case and it plans to sabotage KAT,” alleges M Vijayakumar.
Comments
0 comment