P &H HC Defers Implementation Of Order Notifying Haryana Adminstrative Tribunal [Read Order]

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday deferred the implementation of order notifying  the constitution of Haryana Administrative Tribunal and directed that all fresh as well as pending service matters will be entertained by the High Court and the District Courts of the state as before.

The members of the Haryana State Bar have been on strike for a week protesting the implementation of July 24 notification by the Central Government under section 4(2) of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1985 (the Act). The notification had the effect of constituting Haryana Administrative Tribunal (the Tribunal) to adjudicate upon service matters pertaining to State Government employees.

The bar contended that constitution of the Tribunal was incomplete as the administrative members were not appointed and thus there was no constitution of the Bench as required by Section 5(2) of the Act. Further, the seat of the Principal Bench had also not been notified, as required by Section 5(8) of the Act. This would render the litigating public devoid of any remedy since under the provisions of the Act, a single member can neither decide the matter finally nor take up such cases where the vires of any Service Rules are challenged, they asserted.

Consequently, the court took suo moto cognizance of the matter based on a letter by the High Court Bar Association. The state was represented by Advocate General, Haryana, Additional Solicitor General of India with Assistant Solicitor General of India. The shortcomings projected by the Bar Association were not disputed by representatives of the state and they submitted that issuance of a notification for the seat of Principal Bench would take some time. Thus it would be in the interest of litigants that the implementation of the notification be deferred, the Advocate General submitted.

Accordingly, the bench of Chief Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain deferred the operation of the Tribunal and directed that all fresh cases as well as pending cases shall continue to be entertained by the high court as well as district courts in Haryana until further orders.

"In view of the statement made by Mr. B.R.Mahajan, learned Advocate General, Haryana not being objected to by Mr. Satya Pal Jain, learned Additional Solicitor General of India with Mr. Chetan Mittal, Assistant Solicitor General of India, the implementation of the notification dated 24.07.2019 is deferred for the time being and the fresh cases as well as pending cases shall continue to be entertained by the High Court as well as District Courts in Haryana till further orders of this Court.", ordered the Court. 

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