Calcutta HC scraps CAT order to move Bengal officer’s plea to Delhi

The Calcutta high court has set aside the CAT order to move West Bengal officer to proncipal bench of CAT at Delhi. The bench of justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Rabindranath Samanta on Friday said the modus operandi of the central government to get the Alapan Bandopadhyay’s plea transferred to the principal bench of the CAT in Delhi reeks of mala fide. Bandopadhyay after his retirement on May 31, moved CAT after the Centre’s DoPT  started procceding against him for not attending a meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Kalaikunda in Bengal on May 28 to review damage by Cyclone Yaas.

He was transferred to Delhi as Secretary and ordered to report at DoPT n Delih but the chief minister refused to release him. She later appointed him as her special adviser on a three-year term. But Bandopadhyay has been unable to get his post-retirement benefits in the absence of approvals due to the proceedings. Bandopadhyay approached CAT, Kolkata bench but on October 21, CAT transferred his plea from Kolkata to Delhi on the central government’s request and asked Bandopadhyay to appear before the tribunal in the national capital on October 22.

The Friday order of the two-judge bench said: “The order of the Principal Bench (of CAT) not only violates the legal right conferred on the writ petitioner under Rule 6 of the CAT Rules, 1987, read with Sections 35 and 36 of the 1985 Act, as well as the petitioner’s fundamental right of equality before the law, as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution, which is the grundnorm (basic norm)) of the Indian legal fabric.” Bandopadhyay retired from service on May 31 and was appointed as special adviser to the chief minister for three years with effect from June 1. The same day, the Centre sent him a show-cause letter on June 1, and asked Bandopadhyay to respond in three days.