The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the decision of the Union government to do away with the Odisha Administrative Tribunal through a notification in 2019, observing that the Centre had the power to both establish an Administrative Tribunal and abolish it too.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli passed the order after dismissing a petition filed by the Odisha Administrative Tribunal Bar Association, challenging the Orissa High Court’s decision to uphold the abolition of OAT.
Reading out the operative portion of the verdict, the CJI said that Article 323A of the Constitution did not preclude the Union Government from abolishing a State Administrative Tribunal because it was only an enabling power that empowered the Union Government to establish an administrative tribunal at its discretion on a request from the state government.
The CJI further said that the power to establish an Administrative Tribunal also included a power to abolish the Tribunal. The Union Government did not become a functus officio after establishing the OAT, he added.
Terming Article 323A as an enabling power, he said the same could not be construed as a mandatory provision.
The Supreme Court ruled that the Central government was correct in invoking Section 21 of the General Clauses Act to rescind the decision to set up the tribunal. It further said that the decision to abolish the tribunal was not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.
Terming it a policy decision, the CJI observed that people or representatives of people need not be heard while taking a policy decision.
Noting that there was violation of reasonable classification, the Bench noted that the High Court was already hearing the cases which were before OAT. The failure of the Centre to conduct a judicial impact assessment did not vitiate the decision to abolish the OAT, it added.
The post Supreme Court upholds abolition of Odisha Administrative Tribunal by Centre appeared first on India Legal.
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