more-in One of the key announcements made by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa three months before the 2016 Assembly polls was that the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT), which her government decided to abolish a decade earlier, would be reinstated. But two years since, the tribunal is yet to see the light of day, with several thousand cases pending before the Madras High Court. “We were relieved when the announcement was made in the Assembly in 2016. But nothing much has happened since . Many government servants, whose cases have been pending for several years, have retired from service. Some of them even died without getting justice,” said an officer, who recently attained superannuation. “When Central government employees could approach the Central Administrative Tribunal, SAT was the option we had until 2006 when it was abolished,” he pointed out. An officer in the Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department said that the proposal to set up the tribunal was under process. “We have sought inputs from other States and have sent reminders following up on them,” the officer said. However, there are also those who oppose the setting up of the tribunal contending that they are weaker institutions unlike the High Courts. Retired High Court judge D. Hariparanthaman contended that he was against ‘tribunalisation’ as it weakened constitutional bodies such as the High Courts. “Since High Courts are constitutional bodies, they naturally have more power. High Courts are independent whereas tribunals are under the influence of the government. Impeachments can be moved against High Court judges but there is no such set up in tribunals. Also, SAT was abolished in Tamil Nadu only because it could not clear cases pending before it for long,” he added.

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