The Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT), which has made a record achievement in a short time, is finding it hard to go ahead with its functioning with the delay in the appointment of judicial members. Though there is no obstacle in appointing the judicial members, the government is alleged to be delaying it.
It is alleged that political pressure and lobbying from Kochi were behind the delay in the process. “The KAT started functioning in 2011 and 5,000 cases were disposed of in 20 months. The Tribunal achieved this landmark record with a Single Bench having only one judicial member. More cases can be heard in the Tribunal if the appointments of judicial members have been made,” Indian Association of Lawyers state vice-president Vazhuthacadu Narendran said.
Alleging that the UDF Government was delaying the appointment of the judicial members, he said: “There is a lobby of politicians as well as lawyers who want to wind up the Tribunal here. Apart from this, a section of the officials in the Government Secretariat are with them.” The Single Bench has now Justice K Balakrishnan Nair as chairman and Mathew C Kunnumkal and Pradeep Kumar Naidu as members. “Though the selection panel, which comprises Chief Justice of Kerala, Chief Secretary, KAT Chairman and PSC Chairman had selected 6 members, which includes two judicial members and 4 administrative members, the judicial members have not been appointed till now,” he said.
As per the Administrative Act, the report of the Selection Committee was sent to the State Government, which forwarded it to the Governor and then to the Centre. However, the State Government had withdrawn the report of the selection committee after a section of the lawyers alleged political tone over the selection of the judicial members. When challenged, the HC observed that the government had no power to reconsider the recommendation of the committee but can only give an opinion. This has now been challenged in the SC but no stay has been given for the appointments. Narendran said that the government could go ahead with the appointments as there was no stay. Though many departments and Boards are approaching the Tribunal, the sources said that it was not in a position to take more cases.
“But with the experience of the last 20 months, the Tribunal can deal with any number of cases in a time-bound manner,” they said. Around 7,600 cases were transferred from the HC to KAT in 2012. In 2013, the HC transferred around 2,500 cases till now.
Government pleader P Rahim said the Tribunal was able to dispose of record number of cases in a time-bound manner with the intervention of the Chairman. “The time of functioning of the Tribunal was increased and also no judgment was pending, which all had added to the speedy disposal of cases,” he said.