Govt abolishes SAT

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 3

The uncertainty over the future of the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) was over as the Cabinet today decided to abolish it.

The high-level decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. The CM had hinted that his government was planning to wind up SAT as the cases were not being decided on merit.

It is reliably learnt that almost two-hour long discussion was held before arriving at the decision which could snowball into a major political controversy with the Congress having a conflicting opinion on it. The Advocate General was consulted before taking the decision. The formalities of winding it up and shifting of the cases to the High Court would be taken in due course of time.

“Though it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the functioning of SAT, it has been witnessed that decisions are made without considering the merit of the case. There is very strong opposition among the ministers, party legislators, other elected representatives and organisation leaders about its functioning. So after holding deliberations with party MLAs post-elections, we could take a call on its future,”  the CM said on May 14 this year.

It has become a political issue between the BJP and Congress. The previous BJP regime, headed by PK Dhumal, had wound up SAT in July 2008. It was Virbhadra-led Congress regime which reinstated it on February 28, 2014, as it was the highlight of the party’s election manifesto in the 2012 Assembly polls.

The Chief Minister had said it was immaterial in whose term the Chairman or the members of the SAT were appointed but the decisions must be fair and impartial. He did not mince words in stating that employees were getting stays on transfers without any merit.

SAT had been set up on September 1, 1986, with Justice HS Thakur being its first Chairman.

‘Merit was ignored’

• The CM had hinted that his government was planning to wind up SAT as the cases were not being decided on merit
• The Tribunal had become a political issue between the BJP and the Congress
• The previous BJP regime, headed by PK Dhumal, had abolished it in July 2008
• It was the Virbhadra-led Congress regime which reinstated it on February 28, 2014