Dhumal justifies scrapping of Tribunal

Shimla, Jul 12 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today justified the scrapping of State Administrative Tribunal and said it was done by the Central Government in consultation with the Himachal High Court and the government agreed with it.

''It has been done with state government's consent as the functioning of the SAT during past 24 years had not been laudable and even petty cases of transfers of employees were pending for eight to ten years," he cases.

"In most of the cases, the Tribunal was referring the cases back to the government for taking necessary action and the scrapping of tribunal had come as a relief to both the officers and the employees,'' he told mediapersons here.

He said the cases pending in SAT would be transferred to the High Court and required staff would also be transferred to it.

Replying to a question, he said a number of judges in HC was being raised from nine to eleven and the government might send proposal for further increasing the strength to cope up with additional work load.

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