Administrative Tribunal (APAT) into confidence a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court

HYDERABAD: Turning critical towards the state of Telangana and the central government for removing Telangana from the purview of the AP Administrative Tribunal (APAT) without taking the high court into confidence, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday questioned them about the fate of 8,500 cases pertaining to Telangana state employees pending before the tribunal.

The bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice U Durga Prasad Rao posed this question to the counsel representing Telangana and the Centre while hearing pleas filed by advocates PV Krishnaiah and B Kiran Kumar and a few others who questioned the abrupt cessation of jurisdiction.

Following requests from Telangana, the Centre on Sept 15 issued a gazette notification ending the jurisdiction of the tribunal on Telangana. Hereafter, the tribunal has to adjudicate only the service-related disputes raised by employees from AP state. The petitioners told the court that the APAT is a common tribunal for both AP and Telangana and was also kept in the tenth schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act. The bench also said that out of the 17,000 cases currently pending in the tribunal, half of them belong to Telangana employees. There was no clarity as to what to do with these cases, the bench said. Though Telangana's advocate general K Ramakrishna Reddy told the court that with the abolition of the jurisdiction of the tribunal over T state, all its cases would stand transferred to high court, the bench did not agree with him.

Answering the question as to how the Centre mechanically issued the notification without thinking about the fate of 8,500 cases of Telangana employees pending before the tribunal, assistant solicitor general B Narayana Reddy told the bench that the Centre acted in response to the request made by the state of Telangana. He too reiterated the contention of the AG that since the tribunal for the state is not in existence now, all the Telangana cases would naturally come to high court. The bench, however, said to the AG and the ASG, " HC is now functioning with a mere 23 judges and is already burdened by 3.5 lakh cases. You are thrusting upon us another 8,500 cases enmasse".

Observing that the state should have waited till the high court offers its advice, the bench sought clarity on this aspect both from Telangana and Centre and posted the case to September 29.


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