Row over secretaries; CAT can hear such pleas, Centre to HC

The Centre today told the Delhi High Court that any challenge to its circular on appointment of secretaries by NDA ministers can be challenged only before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
"It is purely governed under the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Act," the counsel, appearing for the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), told a bench of justices B D Ahmed and S Mridul.
The bench, which posted the matter on September 10, also seemed in agreement with the submissions of Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, who represented DoPT, that such pleas should be heard by the CAT.
"It is a service matter. Prima facie, it is covered under the CAT Act. No PIL can be entertained in a service matter. It has to be heard by the Tribunal," it said.

The counsel for NGO Society for Voice of Human Rights and Justice, however, said "this court has the jurisdiction to decide the issue as the matter is not a service matter."
The bench then asked the counsel for the NGO to cite case laws in support of his submission on the next date of hearing.

"Anybody, who is aggrieved, can file the petition. There should be some person who is aggrieved. Let him (bureaucrat) come. Why are you shying away from approaching the CAT?," it said.
The Narendra Modi government had on June 19 issued a circular that a person, who had been attached as a personal office staff with Union Minister for last ten years, be not appointed by NDA ministers.

Later, DoPT clarified that the circular was applicable to OSDs and Secretaries and not to junior office staffers.
During the hearing, the ASG said "there are no fetters on us to make such appointments. It was an administrative exercise. It is our prerogative."
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Society for Voice of Human Rights and Justice challenging the June 19 circular.