Himachal Govt may reinstate SAT – Decides to seek consent from the center
Himachal Pradesh State Administrative Tribunal may reopen again as the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu govt has sought clearance from the Center to reinstate it again.
According to reliable sources in the government state government has proposed to relook on the matter under the provisions of the Administrative Tribunal Act 1985.
The logic behind the government’s fresh move is that the incumbent redressal of employee matters is being delayed and the litigation costs for them become dearer.
The government is of the opinion that reinstalling the old SAT would provide timely justice to non-IAS officers and employees and the state government would have to spend less on the litigation.
In the year 2019, the former Jairam government denotified the tribunal and it was shifted from Majitha House in Chhota Shimla to Himachal Pradesh High Court.
The state government may get the green signal from the Centre, the Administrative Tribunal would be re-established in the state.
The nonadministrative employees or officers rely upon the SAT for resolving of hosts of their administrative matters however with denotification of the SAT the pendency of cases in the High Court also increased. The High Court of Himachal Pradesh is able to dispose of the Regular Second Appeal pending before it after ten years of pendency. If the Government denotified the SAT the employees of the state may benefit from it.
Since 2019 all the cases related to the officers and employees of the state have shifted from the Tribunal to the high court however following Covid Pendamic the redressal of the employee’s matters was not given much priority with respect to other urgent matters.
Sources said that before giving the approval to reopen the SAT, the State Government has to seek permission from the center under administrative and financial power, service rules, and procedure rules of the proposed tribunal. CAT, a similar Administrative tribunal also exists for the redressal of IAS Officers and former state cadres IAS Tarun Shridhar is head of the CAT.
With the change in Congress and BJP rule over the last 12 years it has become a tradition of notifying and denotifying SAT in the state
Every time Congress government reinstates it as soon as it comes to power and the BJP has winded it twice in 2008 and 2019
First of all, in July 2008, the then-Dhumal government put a lock on it and all the cases pending in it were transferred to the High Court.
In February 2015, the Virbhadra government reinstated it as per the promise made in the assembly elections. The tribunal started functioning on 28 February 2015. Justice VK Sharma was made its chairman. The tribunal continued for more than four years.
In December 2017, there was a change of power in the state and Jairam became the Chief Minister. The former Jayaram government closed the tribunal again in the year 2019 by bringing an ordinance. When the Jairam government closed it, there were 21 thousand cases pending in the tribunal. All the cases were transferred to the High Court. The employees serving here have been shifted to different departments.
The tribunal was opened in September 1986 with the aim of speedy disposal of various court cases related to officers and employees.
