Calcutta High CourtWPA(P)/1/2023disposed

Centre Of Indian Trade Unions v. The Union Of India And ORS.

2024-02-22Hon'Ble Justice Jay Sengupta,Hon'Ble Justice Md. Nizamuddin2 pages

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

[CIRCUIT BENCH AT PORT BLAIR] ...

WPA(P)/1/2023 Centre of Indian Trade Unions Vs.

The Union of India and others Mr. Gopala Binnu Kumar ... for the petitioner Mr. V.D.Sivabalan ... for the respondents February 22, 2024 [SR] Item No.4 Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits as follows. Although the petition was filed seeking direction upon the respondent nos.2 and 4 to make an endeavour to hold regular Circuit Bench at Port Blair of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Kolkata Bench on every successive month for expeditious disposal of cases, in view of the reports filed by the respondent authorities dated 24.04.2023 and 17.11.2023, the petition can be disposed of in terms of the same.

Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents submits that regardless of the issue of maintainability of the petitioner, the writ petition can be disposed of in terms of the reports submitted by the respondents.

It appears from the report dated 17.11.2023, that all four sanctioned posts of members, comprising of two Judicial Members and two Administrative Members of Central Administrative Tribunal, Kolkata Bench have been filled up. At that point, the CAT, Kolkata Bench had a pendency of approximately 6345 cases whereas before the Circuit Bench at Port Blair it was only 709 cases. The five

sittings of the Circuit Bench that are scheduled to be held, were to be held regularly. In addition, with the consent of the Bar Association, every Thursday, cases were to be taken up through video conferencing. For any other urgent hearing of cases before the regular Bench, video conference can be availed of. In view of the above, no further order need be passed in this regard.

With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of, albeit without any order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties, upon compliance of usual formalities. ( Jay Sengupta, J. ) ( Md. Nizamuddin, J. )