40,000 service matter cases to be transferred from JK HC to CAT Chandigarah

Chandigarh/Jammu : The Chandigarh bench of Central Administrative will hear around 40,000 cases related to service matters of the Union government and the UT employees of J&K and and Ladakh at Jammu and Kashmir after the ministry extended its jurisdiction to states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Union territories of Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court has prepared a list of around 40,000 cases to be transferred to CAT bench for hearing and disposing off. While the Jammu wing of HC has has made a list of 26,000 cases related to service matters of UT employees of J&K and Ladakh , the Srinagar wing has prepared list of more than 15,000 cases to be heard by the CAT bench.
Earlier, all these cases were heard by the J&K HC and only service matters related to central employees were heard by CAT bench. Now, after this order, the CAT bench would hear all service matters like increments, promotions, pension, dismissal and termination of employees, including daily wagers. The Jammu High Court Bar Association president Abhinav Sharma said, “We are satisfied with the ministry’s clarification, that advocates or litigants do not have to got to Chandigarh for filing of cases, but we want permanent benches which could work five days a week in Jammu, Srinagar and Ladakh. Another HC lawyer Sheikh Shakeel questioned the feasibility of the order, saying, “There is pendency of around 50,000 cases in CAT benches all over India. ” A permanent bench in Kashmir, Srinagar and Ladakh is the only viable solution to save the rights of employees of Jammu and Ladakh, he said.