New Delhi, Jan 27: Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh Friday said that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the Government is constantly removing bottlenecks for faster disposal of litigations in Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) across the country.
While addressing, the two-day Orientation Workshop for the Members of Central Administrative Tribunal at Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) in New Delhi today, Dr. Singh, who is also the Chairman, IIPA Executive Council, said that the Government, in last 8 years, has repealed around 2 thousand laws which had become obsolete.
He said that the Government has looked forward and made efforts to reduce the burden of the judiciary by simplifying procedures and removing hurdles.
Dr. Singh said that while conceptualising idea of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), it was expected that the setting up of such Administrative Tribunals to deal exclusively with service matters would go a long way in not only reducing the burden of the various Courts and thereby giving them more time to deal with other cases expeditiously but would also provide to the persons covered by the Administrative Tribunals speedy relief in respect of their grievances.
The Union Minister said that with the increasing pendency of litigation before the High Courts, the theory of ‘alternative institutional mechanisms’ has also been propounded to defend the establishment of Administrative Tribunals.
He noted that these Administrative Tribunals are expected to function as a viable substitute for the High Courts.
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) was set up on 01.11.1985 with Benches at five places. As on date, it has 19 regular Benches, 17 of which operate at the principal seats of High Courts and the remaining two at Jaipur and Lucknow. Both the newly created Benches at Jammu and Srinagar have been made functional.
The Jammu Bench was made functional from 8th June 2020 while the Srinagar Bench has been made functional from November 2021.
Dr. Singh noted with satisfaction that since its inception in 1985 and up to November 2022, more than 8.93 lac cases have been received in CAT for adjudication (including those transferred from High Courts), out of which 8.12 lac cases have been disposed of, leaving a pendency of 80,899 cases.
He noted that the disposal rate by CAT, on an average, has been above 90%. He said that there is no doubt that the Central Administrative Tribunal has come a long way and is rightly being characterised by the uniqueness in its jurisdiction and procedure.
Dr. Jitendra Singh noted that technological interventions play a primary role in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 and delivery of services to people.
He said that the delivery of the justice and functioning of court was also achieved to a certain extent due to the facility of e-courts and video-conferencing facilities, very well envisaged by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. He said that technological intervention in case management and disposal (e-filing, e-evidence, Video-conferencing and online case management system) need to be adopted and implemented more rigorously.
