HC upholds OAT abolition

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday declined to interfere with the notification on abolition of Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) issued by the Central government on August 2, 2019.While dismissing six petitions, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray said the correspondence between three main actors in the present case - the State government, Centre and High Court - reveals that several factors were taken into account in arriving at the conclusion that the OAT required to be abolished.

“Therefore, there was sufficient material to support the view of the State government that OAT has not served the purpose of delivery of speedy justice to litigants”, the bench said.Further, it is evident that the Central government agreed to go ahead with notifying the rescinding of earlier notification of establishment of the OAT, thus bringing about its abolition, only after the High Court conveyed its concurrence and not otherwise. 

“The court is, therefore, unable to accept the submission of the petitioners that this procedure was extra-legal and invalidated the decision to abolish the OAT”, the bench said, adding, “For all of the aforementioned reasons, the court is of the view that no ground has been made out for the court to interfere with the impugned notification.”

In light of the above conclusion, since all the pending cases before the OAT would automatically stand transferred to this court, the interim order on August 7, 2019 is no longer required to be continued. It is accordingly vacated.The State Cabinet had approved the decision to abolish OAT on September 9, 2015 after it was felt that the very objective of the institution to give quick justice to employees could not be achieved. The Centre acted on the State government’s request after taking concurrence of the High Court and abolished OAT on August 2, 2019.