Delhi High Court reserves order in plea by former WB Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay challenging CAT order

The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on a plea by former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay challenging the order passed by the principal bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) transferring a case filed by him, from Kolkata to Delhi [Alapan Bandyopadhyay v Union of India and Anr]..A Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh reserved its verdict after hearing both parties.The Court also gave the Central government and Bandyopadhyay time till tomorrow to file their additional written submissions.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the Central government. Bandyopadhyay's case was to be argued by Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi who could not make it on time. A request for passover was denied by the Bench and the case was argued by advocate Kartikey Bhatt..Bandyopadhyay was serving as the Chief Secretary when the Centre in May 2021 decided to cut short his tenure with the West Bengal government, and asked him to report to New Delhi, after which he superannuated on May 31.Subsequently, an inquiry was initiated against him by the Centre. Bandyopadhyay had then moved the CAT's Kolkata bench challenging the decision to start the inquiry. This led to the transfer petition by the Centre before the principal bench of CAT.On October 22, the principal bench passed an order allowing the transfer petition and directed the registry office to intimate the order to the Kolkata bench of the CAT.Bandyopadhyay moved the Calcutta High Court contending that the transfer order was in violation of Rule 6(2) of the Central Administrative Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1987.The Calcutta High Court had then passed a scathing order on October 29, 2021 berating the the principal bench of CAT for what it perceived as favouring the Central government in its attempt to transfer the case filed by Bandyopadhyay from Kolkata Bench to New Delhi.The High Court Bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Rabindranath Samanta said that the modus operandi of Central government to get the case transferred to the principal bench of CAT at New Delhi reeked of mala fides.It was unfortunate that the principal bench nurtured such efforts by allowing Centre's transfer petition, the High Court had said.The Centre had appealed to the Supreme Court against the same and got a favourable verdict..A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar of the top court had held that the Calcutta High Court did not have the jurisdiction to deal with the plea by Bandyopadhyay."The High Court at Calcutta has usurped jurisdiction to entertain the Writ Petition (by Bandyopadhyay) challenging the order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, New Delhi even after taking note of the fact that the Principal Bench of the Tribunal does not lie within its territorial jurisdiction," the Supreme Court had ruled.The apex court stated in its judgment that any decision of the CAT at Delhi, including the one passed under Section 25 of the Act could be subjected to scrutiny "only before a Division Bench of a High Court within whose jurisdiction the tribunal concerned falls."The apex court had, however, granted liberty to Bandyopadhyay to move the jurisdictional High Court prompting the former Chief Secretary to file the current plea before the Delhi High Court.