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Orissa Administrative Tribunal Bar Association vs Union of India & Ors. (Civil Appeal No. 6805 of 2022, with connected Civil Appeal No. 6806 of 2022)

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 271Decided 21 Mar 2023
Civil Appeal No. 6805 of 2022
Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud · Hima Kohli · Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha

Background

The Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) was set up in 1986 under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 to handle government service disputes. In 2019, acting on a request from the Odisha State Government, the Union Government abolished the OAT by notification, transferring pending cases to the Orissa High Court. The Orissa Administrative Tribunal Bar Association and others challenged this abolition before the Orissa High Court, which upheld it; they then appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the abolition was unconstitutional, procedurally improper, and violated their right of access to justice.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the abolition of the OAT as constitutionally valid. It held that Article 323-A of the Constitution is an enabling (not mandatory) provision, so the Union Government has discretion to abolish a State Administrative Tribunal just as it can establish one, and it validly used Section 21 of the General Clauses Act to rescind the OAT's founding notification. The Court found no violation of Article 14 (the decision wasn't arbitrary), no breach of natural justice (the public had no right to a hearing before a policy decision), no issue with the notification not being issued in the President's name, and no denial of access to justice since the High Court would now hear the transferred cases. However, the Court reiterated its earlier direction (from Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank) that the Ministry of Law and Justice must conduct a "judicial impact assessment" of tribunals, noting this had still not been done more than three years later.

Lesson Learnt

The power to create a specialised tribunal under Article 323-A carries with it the power to abolish it: the Union Government is not permanently locked into maintaining a tribunal once created, and citizens' access-to-justice rights are protected so long as an alternative forum (like the High Court) remains available for pending and future cases.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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