Lawyer moves HC against vacancies at MAT bench since 2 yrs

Nagpur: A lawyer has knocked the doors of the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court contending that vacancies of judicial officers in the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunals’ (MAT) bench has led to an increase in pendency of cases.
The petition filed on behalf of several aggrieved employees by Rahul Shiralkar stated that there are two vacancies of judicial members at Nagpur and both were not filled up since the last two years. When it is filled after an inordinate delay, the person who is appointed hardly gets a tenure to perform his duty.
While fixing the petition for final disposal at the admissions stage, a division bench comprising justices Sunil Shukre and Anil Pansare on Friday issued notices to the respondents, including the Central and state governments, asking them to reply within four weeks.
The other respondents included the union department of personnel and training (tribunal) secretary and joint secretary and Maharashtra general administration department (GAD) secretary.
“Government pleader Ketki Joshi to take up the issue with the state government and revert to this court with an appropriate response,” the judges said.
According to the petitioner, the petition has been filed to air the grievances of hundreds of government employees whose several matters are pending before the MAT bench for many years. “No relief is coming their way in view of the indifference of the respondents in filling up both vacancies,” the judges said.
Besides the judicial officers, Shiralkar contended that there is also shortage of other staff members, lack of video conferencing facilities and inadequate infrastructure at the city-based bench. “There are three posts of judicial members and only one stenographer has been provided. There are in all 39 sanctioned posts of administrative staff and judicial members out of which 15 posts are lying vacant,” he said.
Quoting names of former HC judges like RG Deshpande, Kishor Rohee, MN Gilani, AP Deshpande and others, the petitioner said the MAT bench here was one of the best in the state, but now suffering due to vacancies.
“The respondents need to look into the matter of shortage of staff and take immediate steps to fill up the vacancies so that functioning of the tribunal is not hampered. Non-availability of judicial members is causing great inconvenience to the litigants whose cases are pending since 2010. There are remanded back matters by HC with directive to decide the same within a specified period. However, it cannot be decided because of absence of judicial members in the tribunal,” he said.
The petitioner said it is the duty of the respondents to fill up posts of members of tribunals as and when they are vacant, being the coordinating agency of the Union of India. “Till date there is no appointment made of judicial members for MAT, even though the consent of the retired judges are taken long back, causing inconvenience to litigants,” he pointed out.