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| HC stays CAT order on Arun Kumar | | |
SANT KUMAR SHARMA
Jammu, November 26:
A Division Bench of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court has stayed a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order passed in favour of Dr Arun Kumar, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB).
A Chandigarh Bench of the CAT had quashed the formation of inquiry committee and attachment of Dr Kumar to General Administration Department (GAD). The CAT order, passed on May 20 this year, had also directed the state government to give a suitable posting to Dr Kumar.
The government had been given four months’ time to implement the CAT order (by September 20). However, it did not do so as it has done in some more cases.
According to sources, the GAD filed the writ petition in the High Court against the CAT order but kept the Chief Minister, Mr Omar Abdullah, as also the Law Minister, Mr Ali Mohammed Sagar, in the dark about the goings-on. However, it could not be confirmed, officially, from Mr Abdullah or Mr Sagar.
A source in the law department said that even the Advocate General and the Additional Advocate General were not taken into the loop, in fact bypassed. They were reportedly not consulted in the matter.
The necessary sanction for moving the writ petition, in the Srinagar Bench at a time when the government is in Jammu, was apparently given by the former principal secretary of law, Mr A H Kochak, before he retired some time ago. The minister of state for law and parliamentary affairs, Mr Aijaz Ahmed Khan, is reported to have given the approval for moving the writ petition.
The GAD was represented by lawyer Javed Iqbal who is not in the list of government counsel, according to some law department officials.
Mr A K Sawhney, who represented Dr Arun Kumar in CAT, when asked to comment on the stay order, said: ``We are preparing our reply to the notices issued by the court. In due course, we will file our reply once we get the court order and get complete details.’’
Expressing surprise at the manner in which the case was filed, a bit surreptitiously, Mr Sawhney said that it was rather novel that the CM, the Law Minister, the Law Commissioner/Secretary, the Advocate General et al, were bypassed and necessary sanctions not taken from them.
The government’s contention before the Division Bench was that the CAT had overstepped its jurisdiction. Besides Dr Kumar, notices have also reportedly been issued to the Registrar of Chandigarh Bench of CAT and the Union of India since Dr Kumar is an IAS officer. |
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