The TN Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has rejected a plea from the general manager of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) to constitute a fresh selection committee comprising officials from Traffic and Accounts of Railway Board and conduct a fresh selection for the post of Member (Technical), Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT).
Dismissing the petition from Abhay Kumar Khanna, the bench comprising Judicial Member K Elango and Administrative Member Naresh Gupta held that CAT had no jurisdiction and competence over the issue.
Petitioner’s advocate A Abdul Ajees contended that Abhay Kumar Khanna had applied for the post of Member (Technical) in RCT in response to an advertisement dated 31 January last and attended the interview on April 13. He contended that the selection committee was not constituted as per law. On May 23, 2013, he submitted a representation to the Ministry of Railways. Since there was no response he filed this petition.
P Srinivasan, senior standing counsel for Railways, argued that CAT had no jurisdiction to decide the issue. He also denied petitioner’s allegation and stated that the post of Member (Technical) in RCT could not be equated with a civil post and in the absence of a notification issued by Government of India, section 14(1) of Administrative Tribunal Act, 1985 could not be made applicable on quasi-judicial posts or other posts not of civil nature.
Concurring with the contentions of Srinivasan, the CAT dismissed the petition.