The All India Conference of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) began here today. The Conference, which is being held in the Silver Jubilee year of the CAT, was inaugurated by Mr. Justice Altamas Kabir, a senior Judge of the Supreme Court and was presided over by Dr. M. Veerappa Moily, the Union Minister of Law & Justice. The Minister of State for Personnel, P.G. & Pensions, Shri V. Narayanasamy was also present on the occasion. The Inaugural Session was followed by in house discussion on the agenda items raised by the Members and the session was chaired by the Chairman, CAT, Justice V.K. Bali.

Speaking at the Inaugural Session, the Union Minister of Law & Justice Dr. Moily called upon for the change of attitude in our administrative governance to ensure that unnecessary and trivial service matters are not brought before the Tribunals and Courts. He said that we need to devise mechanism where the problems of the employees are sorted out in the administrative set up itself. To sort out these issues, he said, we need to do ‘out of the box thinking’. He said that the accountability, performance and output of the employees must be judged while handling their cases.

In his inaugural address, Mr. Justice Altamas Kabir applauded the Central Administrative Tribunal for disposing of the cases before it expeditiously and also commended it for the fact that most of its judgments have been upheld by the higher courts.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of State for Personnel, P.G. & Pensions, Shri V. Narayanasamy said that the pendency in the Tribunal is substantially low and the time period to dispose of cases is much less compared to higher courts. He said that the government is seriously thinking of ways and means to bring within the jurisdiction of the Central Administrative Tribunal many more Central Govt. organizations and institutions working.

He said that so far we have brought 191 organizations within the ambit of the CAT, so that more Government employees would be in a position to get speedy justice for their grievances. If we can fulfill the infrastructure needs of CAT, even the PSUs and Public Sector Banking Institutions could be covered. He asked the CAT officials to send a proposal to Planning Commission stipulating their infrastructural needs and assured that his Ministry would make efforts to ensure that CAT’s requirements in this regard are fully met.

Shri Narayanasamy said that the historic RTI Act, 2005, has brought great transparency in governance. He said that we are taking further steps to improve RTI law to strengthen it to increase public disclosure, so that most of the information except national security and personal privacy related information would be in public domain.

In his Key note address, Mr. Justice G.S. Singhvi, Judge, Supreme Court of India emphasized on reforms in the Public Services Commissions of the States and said that persons of impeccable integrity should be holding positions in such Boards. He said the Government must ensure that the matters like gratuity and pension etc are resolved in-house and such matters should not reach the Tribunals or the Courts. He called for evolving departmental mechanism which can address the employees’ grievances and thus help reducing burden of courts in service matters.

The Chairman of the CAT, Mr. Justice V.K. Bali said that the about 200 institutions/organizations have been notified resulting into manifold increase in the work of the various Benches of the CAT. But despite quantitative increase in the work, the Tribunals across the country have kept pace with disposal, he said.

Justice Bali informed that at the Principal Bench, the disposal rate is 100%. On an average, 91% cases of the Principal Bench have been upheld in the High Court and the position with regard to other Benches not much different, he said. Justice Bali said that the Tribunal has performed well quantitatively and qualitatively.

Earlier Shri L.K. Joshi, Vice-Chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal delivered the Welcome Address and later Vote of Thanks was proposed by Shri K.V. Sachidanandan, also Vice-Chairperson.

The Administrative Tribunals in India were set up in 1985 and function from 17 Benches across the country. These Tribunals are unique in the sense that the Members of these Tribunals are both from the Administrative as well as Judicial side. Each Division Bench comprises of a judicial & administrative Member. The Administrative Tribunals in India are different from the Tribunals functioning in some other countries as the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here was set up solely with the purpose of dealing with the cases relating to the recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts under the control of the Government and thereby, reducing the burden of the High Courts to that extent.

The Conference being held is an Annual Conference which is generally held on 1st Nov every year as this was the day the CAT was established. It is attended by all the Members of the CAT where agenda items brought up by the various Members and other issues being faced by the Tribunal are discussed and recommendations of the Conference are sent to the Government for action. This year is being celebrated as the ‘Silver Jubilee” year of the setting up of the CAT.

Source :  PIB

Grants to Sanstriti School have been given for capital works only. Grants-in-aid under reference were given to Sanskriti School for construction of Annex block in the premises, which have been fully utilized by Sanskriti School for the said purpose. Utilization Certificates have been received from Sanskriti School and annual accounts of the school for 2007-08, 2008-09 have been audited by the Chartered Accountants. In their opinion, proper books of accounts have been maintained and the Balance Sheet and Income and Expenditure Account are in agreement with the books of accounts.

Grants-in-aid were given to Sanskriti School after obtaining the concurrence of the Ministry of Finance and with the approval of the Cabinet. The question of obtaining approval of the Ministry of Railways does not arise.

Sanskriti School has reserved 60% of its seats to cater to the wards of the officers of the Government including Railways. There are no other special benefits given to the employees of the Ministry of Railways.

Admissions for nursery classes in Sanskriti School are made as per the guidelines of the Government of NCT, Delhi. Further, 60 percent seats are reserved for the wards of Civil Services/Defence Cadre and Allied Services, 15 percent for the wards of the economically weaker sections and 5 percent for the wards of the staff.

For all other classes the admissions are restricted to the wards of Central Government Servants coming on transfer to Delhi. In their cases, the admissions are based on performance in the entrance test, and vacancies available in respective classes.

Government is finalizing a policy/guideline for setting up Sanskriti type schools in other parts of the country.

This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Source : PIB