CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has set July 16 date to take stock of status of cases that were pending before the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) after its abolition 10 months ago.
The Court fixed the date after a State Government employee moved it for permission to withdraw his petition pending before the OAT and take his grievances to the competent authority.
OAT had functioned with a principal Bench in Bhubaneswar, a regular bench in Cuttack and circuit bench in Sambalpur and Berhampur since 1986.
When it was felt that the very objective of the institution to give quick justice to Government employees could not be achieved, the State Cabinet approved decision to abolish OAT on September 9, 2015.
Acting on the Government’s request, the Centre had abolished OAT by way of a gazette notification on August 2, 2019. Nearly 74,000 cases pending before OAT were to be transferred to the High Court.
The petition was taken up for hearing through video conferencing on Thursday. Advocate PN Mohanty made submissions on behalf of the petitioner.
Advocate General AK Parija appeared along with Additional Government Advocate (AGA) MS Sahoo for the State Government.The division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Savitri Ratho allowed it and fixed July 16 for further consideration of the matter along with the AGA’s report.
The matter assumes significance as en bloc transfer of the pending cases has not been possible owing to an interim stay order which the Court had issued on a petition filed by OAT Bar Association, Cuttack challenging the Central Government notification on abolition of the tribunal on August 7, 2019.