Foundation laid for court-cum-office building of CAT in Guwahati city

GUWAHATI: The Foundation Stone of the construction of court-cum-office building of the Guwahati Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) at Ramkrishna Mission Road in Birubari here was laid on Sunday by Manjula Das, Chairman of the CAT, in the presence of the N Kotiswar Singh and KR Surana, both sitting Judges of the Gauhati High Court, and Justice (Retd) BK Sharma.

According to an official communiqué, the function was also attended by the senior officers of the Central and State Governments and various dignitaries.

The CAT's Guwahati Bench adjudicates service matters of the not only the Central Government civilian employees posted in seven States of the Northeastern region – Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh – but also of the employees of the notified organizations posted in this region. Since its inception, the Guwahati Bench has been functioning from a rented building at Rajgarh Road, Bhangagarh which is presently in a dilapidated condition and lacks basic amenities for proper functioning of the Bench. Therefore, there was always a constant demand from the stakeholders to have own office-cum-court-complex of the Bench with sufficient space and other state-of-the-art amenities. With this foundation stone laying ceremony, this need will be fulfilled in the near future.

After assumption of charge as Chairman by Manjula Das on August 1, 2021, the matter for transfer of a suitable plot of land was vigorously taken up with the Government of Assam right up to the level of the Chief Minister and with the kind intervention of the latter the land was transferred in a very short span of time. The CAT Chairman specially thanked Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, officers in the Revenue Department and also to Pallav Gopal Jha, Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (Metro) and his team in this regard. The Chairman also expressed her sincere thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions for immediate release of necessary funds, thereby paving the way for construction of the court-cum-office building.

In her speech, the CAT Chairman thanked the CPWD, Assam Police and felicitated members of the legal fraternity as well officers of the Tribunal for their significant contribution to the organization. The Chairman also granted Rs1 lakh to the CAT Bar Association, Guwahati Bench as Grant in Aid.

Justice N Kotiswar Singh said in his address as Chief Guest that the judiciary is one of the important limbs of democracy and democracy without an independent judiciary is hollow. He expressed his happiness that during the tenure of Manjula Das as Chairman, construction of CAT's own building has started. He expected that the new building will have all the facilities for the stakeholders.

Justice (Retd) BK Sharma, in his address as Guest of Honour, recollected his long association with CAT and stressed the requirement of specialized knowledge of the rules and regulations in service matters for practice in CAT, which is uncommon in the High Court.

Justice KR Surana also spoke on the occasion.

The event was marked by the depiction of Assamese culture with Bihu dance, recital of classical flute by Dilip Hirain at the beginning and ended with the 'Bhumi Pujan' by the CAT Chairman, Judges of the Gauhati High Court and other dignitaries.

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