Bombay HC pulls up DoPT and State over delay in appointment of Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal Chairman [Read Order]

The Bombay High Court recently directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Central Government and State Government to file an affidavit in reply as to why the post of Chairman of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) has been vacant for past six months. .A Division Bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and R I Chagla was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by one Kanhaiya Vasant Mahamuni, complaining about the delay in making appointments to the vacant posts of the MAT..In its order, the Court came down heavily on Central and State Government and observed, .“It is unfortunate that this petition, filed in the year 2013 as a Public Interest Litigation, cannot be disposed of simply because the Governments (the Central and the State) do not realise the seriousness of the matter. There are lakhs of State Government employees whose service matters are pending before the Principal Seat of this Tribunal and its Benches at Aurangabad and Nagpur.”.The Court noted that the MAT is set up under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 and deals with service matters of the Government servants in Maharashtra. .In view of this, the Court went on to observe, .“However, the situation is pathetic as the Chairman of this Tribunal demitted the office with effect from 15th July, 2019. There has been no Chairman appointed to fill up this vacancy. Now, nearly six months have elapsed from the date of this vacancy.”.The Counsel appearing for Central Government stated that DoPT has not received a proposal from the State Government to fill up the vacant post of the Chairman.To this, the Government Pleader PP Kakade for the State Government stated that a written proposal has been forwarded to the concerned Department of the Government of India on October 5, 2019..The Court noted that the Chairman of MAT is a member of the Selection Committee which includes the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court and Chief Secretary of the State Government..The Bench further stated that since the post of MAT Chairman is vacant, the selection committee cannot function in order to fill up posts in the Tribunal. In this regard, Justice S C Dharmadhikari noted, .“Once the post of the Chairman is vacant, this Selection Committee cannot function and consequently the vacancies caused by the retirement of the Member (Administrative) and Member (Judicial) cannot be filled in…Needless to clarify that if there is no Chairman appointed, then, the vacant posts (four in number of Members Judicial and Administrative) cannot be filled up.” .The petitioner was represented by advocate Uday Warunjikar and advocate NR Prajapati appeared for Central Government..[Read Order dated December 10, 2019]