Supreme Court directs to complete setting up Karnataka Administrative Tribunal expeditiously

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed to take all steps expeditiously for completing the constitution of the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal without any further delay.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said the judicial member, T Narayana Swamy, who was directed to be continued by the interim order of this court, has since attained the age of 67 years, so the interim order on his continuation would consequently stand vacated.

On Friday, advocate Nishanth Patil, appearing for KAT registrar, submitted KSAT has three benches- Principal Bench at Bengaluru and two regional benches, one each at Belagavi and Kalaburgi. There are five sanctioned posts of judicial members (including the Chairman), who are serving in Bengaluru Principal Bench. Out of the five posts of administrative members in the tribunal four posts have been filled.

He claimed, apart from the existing vacancy, the claim made that by October 15, 2022, there will be two further vacancies of judicial members, is not true. On expiry of term of the judicial member on October 14, 2022, there would have been only one more vacancy of judicial member, he said.

In earlier proceedings, senior advocate Rajesh Mahale, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, stated that apart from the existing vacancy, by October 15, 2022, two further vacancies of judicial members in the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal could be created.

As a result, it has been submitted that the Tribunal would be brought to a grinding halt.

In exercise of the jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution, the court had then directed the existing judicial members would continue to function till fresh appointments are made and the incumbents take over.

The petitioners contended even though the volume of litigations and consequential pendency has only seen a gradual increase over the years, the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunals have, till now, never been fully equipped with a full quorum of judicial and administrative members to preside over the benches of the Tribunals.