Hyderabad: Experts said the winding up of service tribunals is unfortunate and the governments did not consult stakeholders. They said it the scrapping of tribunals would impact employees as well as the government and increase pendency in courts.
Mr M. Ram Gopal Rao, former president of the AP Administrative Tribunal Advocate Association, said the State Administrative Tribunals (SATs) helped employees get early and low-cost justice. “Tribunals generally have quicker processes and fewer formal procedures than courts, including the absence of any requirement to follow rules of evidence. Tribunals are generally cheaper than courts and there may be limits on legal representation in tribunal hearings,” he said.
Stating the decision to abolish the tribunals was incorrect, Dr K. Lakshmi Narasimha, senior counsel, who deals with service matters, said the government should have tried to find ways to make them more viable.
“The primary reason for the creation of tribunals was to overcome the crisis of delays and backlogs in the administration of justice,” he pointed out.
As the news airing the abolition of APAT, the leaders of state employees union made a representation to Union minister for state for home G. Kishan Reddy on Monday, urging that the Centre must not approve the state government decision.
Mr K. Prasanna Kumar, president of the AP Upadhyaya Federation (APUF), who was in the delegation, the abolition will cause unnecessary harassment to 4.53 lakh of government employees.
Mr Yugendhar Reddy, former president of United APUF, who hails from Telangana state, said by the abolition of Telangana SAT, the state had deprived thousands of employees of getting justice at their doorstep. He alleged that the transferred cases from the TS Tribunal were not listed before the High Court.
