BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday rejected the petition filed by the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KAT) chairman Justice K Bhakthavatsala seeking directions to the state and the Centre to pay salary on par with chief justice of the high court.
Acting Chief Justice L Narayana Swamy pronounced the judgement rejecting the petition and upheld the contention of the Union government that law is not permitted to give higher salary to the chairman as the said post is equivalent to the judge of a high court.
Justice Bhakthavatsala contended that denial of salary equivalent to a chief justice is illegal, as the salary of the chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) is equivalent to the Chief Justice of a high court. There cannot be a distinction between chairman of CAT and KAT as they are carrying out similar work.
In fact, there is more work in the KAT than in CAT, since the number of cases filed before KAT is higher than those filed in the Central Administrative Tribunal. The Union government, without understanding the definition of the term ‘judge’ as contained in Section 2(1)(g) of the HC Salaries Act, erred in fixing salary, he contended.
For this, the high court said in its judgement that the work of chairman of the KSAT cannot be compared with that of chairman of CAT because they are two different forums having different jurisdiction and are governed by the provisions of the Administrative Tribunals Act.
The court also said that the provisions of the Tribunals Act indicate that there is no intention of equating the chairman, vice-chairman, and members of the tribunal with the Chief Justice and Judges of the High Courts for purposes other than those expressly provided in respect of jurisdiction, power, etc.
“Equation of the tribunal with high court there in Sampath Kumar case decided by Supreme Court was only as the forum for adjudication of disputes relating to service matters and not for all purposes such as the one arising for decision in that case,” the high court said. Presently, the chairman as well as the members are paid Rs 80,000 per month.