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HIGH COURT OF DELHI
Date of Decision: 27th March, 2023
P AND T GROUP A ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION THROUGH THE PRESIDENT..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Anukul Raj, Mr. Anubhav Deep Singh, Mr. Tushar Bhalla and
Ms. Nikita Raj, Advocates
Through: Mr. Ajay Digpaul, Central Government Standing Counsel with
Mr. Kamal R. Digpaul, Ms. Swati Kwatra, Advocates for Union of India along with
Mr. Amar Relan, Director and Mr. Swaraj Singh in person.
JUDGMENT
1. Allowed, subject to all just exceptions.
2. Applications stand disposed of. W.P.(C) 3865/2023 & C.M. APPL. 15034/2023 (for maintainability)
3. Present writ petition has been preferred by Petitioner seeking the following reliefs:-
4. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of Petitioner submits that no doubt, the Central Administrative Tribunal is the Court of first instance for entertaining the issues arising in the present writ petition as they are service disputes against the Respondents who are amenable to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, however, the writ petition has been filed since the grievances ventilated in this petition are squarely covered by a judgment of the Division Bench of this Court in W.P.(C) 22515-22518/2005, Indian Telecom Service Association & Others v. Union of India & Others, decided on 17.04.2012.
5. Having heard the counsel for the Petitioner, this Court is of the view that the writ petition is not maintainable before this Court and cannot be entertained. The issues emanating in the writ petition are covered under ‘service matters’ as defined in Section 3(q) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 and the Respondents i.e. Department of Telecommunications, Department of Personnel & Training and Cabinet Secretariat are amenable to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal under Section 14(1) of the said Act. The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India and Others, (1997) 3 SCC 261, has clearly held that Central Administrative Tribunals will be the Court of first instance in service matter disputes.
6. Insofar as the reliance of the Petitioner on the judgment of the Division Bench of this Court in Indian Telecom Service Association (supra) is concerned, a mere reading of the judgment shows that the Division Bench decided a batch of writ petitions challenging orders passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal.
7. In view of the aforesaid, the writ petition is not maintainable and is accordingly dismissed, granting liberty to the Petitioner to take recourse to appropriate remedies available in law in an appropriate Forum.
8. Pending application also stands disposed of.