JUDGMENT

Phukan, J.-In these two appeals by special leave, two orders of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu have been assailed. By the impugned orders the High Court rejected two applications filed by the appellants for transfer of the writ petitions to the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench. As the points involved are the same, they were heard together and by this judgment both the appeals are disposed of.

2. The appellants are the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (for short Kendriya Vidyalaya ) and its officials. The respondent No. 1 in Civil Appeal No. 5021 of 2001 and the sole respondent in Civil Appeal No. 5448 of 2000 are the employees of the Kendriya Vidyalaya and as some dispute arose regarding their service conditions, they filed two writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution before the High Court for adjudication. In the above two writ petitions the Kendriya Vidyalaya filed two separate applications for transfer of the writ petitions to the Central Administrative Tribunal on the ground that under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 (for short the Act ) the Tribunal has got jurisdiction to decide the disputes. By the impugned orders, both