Madurai: Madurai Bench of the Madras High
Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to consider a plea for setting
up a full or circuit bench of the Central Administrative
Tribunal (CAT) in Madurai.
A bench comprising Justices Chitra Venkataraman and R
Karuppiah gave the direction to the Union Law and Justice
Ministry and Chairman of CAT while disposing a public interest
litigation petition.
Petitioner A.Haja Mohideen, an advocate, submitted that
government officials seeking legal remedies for service
matters had to travel to Chennai to initiate proceedings
before the present CAT bench there.
As already there was a large number of cases pending in the
Chennai CAT bench, it was difficult to get remedy there,
he contended adding he filed the petition as there was no
response to his representations to the Centre and the CAT
Chairman on establishment of a bench here.
The Judges said setting up a CAT bench was a policy matter
which had to be considered on the representation made.
So without waiting for a decision on the representation,
which was receiving the due consideration of Union Ministry
of Law and justice and the Chairman of the CAT, this court
could not grant the relief as sought for in the petition.
However, the judges the directed the Union Ministry of Law
and Justice and the CAT Chairman to take note of grievance of
the petitioner and pass orders on the same.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 04, 2012, 23:40