CAT Judgement : In a relief to several PAs , the Ahmedabad bench of CAT has set aside the DoP order cancelling their services

In a relief to several postal assistants (PA) and sorting assistants (SA) from Gujarat, the Ahmedabad bench of central administrative tribunal (CAT) has set aside the order cancelling their services on Tuesday.

The CAT has also asked the postal department to conduct inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of PAs and SAs from the state and take decision within three months.

Hundreds of PAs and SAs from the state, whose recruitment was cancelled by the postal department in December last year, had approached the CAT. "The postal department had cancelled the recruitments across the country after one of the candidates who wasn't selected alleged that irregularities occurred in the recruitment process in Uttar Pradesh. Following the allegations, inquiry was conducted and hundreds of recruitments were cancelled by the postal department," said senior advocate Bhaskar Tanna who represented the PAs and SAs.

"We filed case in the CAT on behalf of 167 affected PAs and SAs from Gujarat. We argued in the tribunal that the postal department terminated all recruitments without segregating guilty and non-guilty candidates. Also, the candidates were not given any opportunity of being heard.

The bench of M Nagarajan and E K Bharat Bhushan held that the decision to cancel the recruitments was unconstitutional and violated the provisions of the constitution," Tanna told TOI. The bench has asked the postal department to conduct inquiry within three months and take those on job who are found to be not guilty. "This order is limited to Gujarat. The tribunal has also asked postal department to ensure that the guilty be booked," Tanna added.

Source: Times of India