SupremeToday Landscape Ad
Back
Next
Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation
Listen Article Pause Article
judgment-img

2012 Supreme(Ker) 188

High Court of Kerala
C.N. RAMACHANDRAN NAIR & K. VINOD CHANDRAN
Basil Attipetty @ Basil A.G.
Versus
Union of India & Others
WP(C).Nos. 34472 of 2011 (S), 35143, 33436, 31598, 22382 of 2011 & 478 of 2012
Decided on: 24-02-2012

Advocates appeared:
For the Petitioner:Benoy Thomas, Paulson Thomas, Dr. George Abraham, Advocates.
For the Respondents:R1 & R2, P. Parameswaran Nair, A.S.G, R3 & R7, K.P. Dandapani, Advocate General, Roshan P. Alexander, Sr. Govt. Pleader, R4, K.R.B. Kaimal, Senior Advocate, S.C, B. Unnikrishna Kaimal, R8, P. Gopal, Advocates.

Headnote:Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, Section 6 - It is not mandatory to conduct the written examination for applicants to evaluate the merit for the appointment of judicial members to the state service tribunal.

Judgment

RAMACHANDRAN NAIR, J.

1. This is the 2nd round litigation in this Court challenging the establishment and constitution of Kerala Administrative Tribunal. The first round of litigation ended up with the Division Bench judgment in Sreekandan v. State of Kerala, reported in 2011(2) KLT 394, wherein this Court upheld the establishment of the Tribunal and appointment of the Chairman, against which SLP filed is said to be pending before the Honourable Supreme Court. In these batch cases, in addition to the challenge against the establishment and constitution of the Tribunal and appointment of the Chairman, some of the petitioners have challenged the selection and appointment of two Administrative Members from out of the 3 candidates selected by the selection committee. So far as Judicial Members are concerned, even though the selection committee selected two candidates, both members of the High Court Bar, from among several candidates who applied for the post including judicial officers from the State Subordinate Judiciary, the State Government dropped their names with the concurrence of the Governor which is accepted by the Central Government. WP(C) No.22382/2011 is filed by a State Government Employees Organisation challenging the Government Orders dropping the two candidates selected for appointment as Judicial Members and besides praying for quashing those orders, the petitioner seeks direction from this Court to both the State and Central Governments to forward their names to the Chief Justice of India for considering approval for appointment. However, most of the petitioners in the other WP (C)s challenge the procedure for selection adopted by the selection committee for selection of all the members as arbitrary and violative of the provisions of the Act and the Rules. The factual position as of now is that the Chairman was appointed on 25/08/2010 and on account of delay in appointment of members, the Tribunal could not start functioning for 1= years, since it's establishment. From among the three Administrative Members selected by the selection committee constituted under Rule 3 (2) of the Administrative Tribunals (Procedure for appointment of Vice Chairman and Members) Rules, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules for short), the President of India in consultation with the Chief Justice of India appointed two Administrative Members (both retired from Indian Administrative Service). The Administrative Members took charge on 22/12/2011 & 02/01/2012 respectively, and thereafter the Tribunal started sitting at the Principal Bench at Thiruvananthapuram. The Tribunal as of now is constituted with a retired High Court Judge as it's Chairman and two retired IAS Officers as Administrative Members. No Judicial Member is so far appointed. Learned Advocate General submitted that the State Government prefers appointment of District Judges as Judicial Members for which no amendment is so far made to the Rules. Consequent upon the commencement of sitting of the Tribunal, the Registrar General of the High Court issued orders on 21/12/2011 produced as Ext.P15 in WP(C) No.34472/2011 stating that from 22/12/2011 onwards, the High Court registry will not entertain any service case pertaining to employees of State Government, State Government Schools and Government Colleges. So far as service cases pending before the Single Judges of the High Court over which the Tribunal has jurisdiction are concerned, those are being transferred to the Tribunal in terms of Section 29 of the Act on orders by the Single Judges. Besides challenging the selection and appointment of members so far made, the petitioners have a case that the Tribunal without Judicial Members is not properly constituted and therefore should not be allowed to function. Consequently, challenge is made against Ext.P15 order of the Registrar General of the High Court prohibiting filing of service cases in the High Court over which the Tribunal has jurisdiction. Prayers in thes
































































Click Here to Read the rest of this document

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
SupremeToday Portrait Ad
supreme today icon
whatsapp-icon Back to top