New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the notification issued by the Central government in 2019 to abolish the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT).
Dismissing the petition filed by the Odisha Administrative Tribunal Bar Association challenging the Orissa High Court’s decision that upheld the abolition of OAT, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said: “We hold that abolition of Orissa Administrative Tribunal was valid. Article 323A does not preclude Union of India to abolish state administrative tribunals. Centre was correct to invoke Section 21 of General Clauses Act to rescind the decision to set up the tribunal. Decision to abolish the tribunal is not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.”
It is worth mentioning here that the Odisha government decided to abolish the tribunal in 2015 after it felt that the very objective of the institution to give quick justice to employees could not be achieved and moved the Centre seeking its nod for executing its decision. Consequently, the Department of Personnel and Training of the Central government issued a notification on August 2, 2019, abolishing OAT.
The Orissa High Court had noted in its order that there was sufficient material to support the view of the state government that OAT has not served the purpose of delivery of speedy justice to litigants.
