1991 (5) TMI 251

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....h centres round the order of transfer of the appellant. We do not propose to finally dispose of the second aspect and would leave it to the Tribunal to deal with it in the manner which we shall presently indicate. 3. Turning to the first aspect, it would be necessary to refer to the relevant provisions of the Act. Section 5 deals with composition of the Tribunal and benches thereof. Section 5(1), (2) and (6) provide : "5. (1) Each Tribunal shall consist of a Chairman and such number of Vice-Chairman (and Judicial and Administrative Members) as the appropriate Government may deem fit and, subject to the other provisions of this Act, the jurisdiction, powers and authority of the Tribunal may be exercised by Benches thereof. (2) Subje....

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....ught to the notice of the Court. 5. Undoubtedly in Sampath Kumar case2 this Court has clearly indicated that the jurisdiction of the High Court had been transferred to the Tribunal and, therefore, the nature of the business transacted by the Tribunal was judicial out and out. Referring to this aspect, Chief Justice Bhagwati has said: (SCC p. 131, para 5) "It is necessary to bear in mind that service matters which. are removed from the jurisdiction of the High Court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution and entrusted to the Administrative Tribunal set up under the impugned Act for adjudication involve questions of interpretation and applicability of Articles 14, 15, 16 and 311 in quite a large number of cases. These questions req....

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....nts who go before the Tribunal by holding that while allocating work to the Single Member whether judicial or administrative in terms of sub-section (6), the Chairman should keep in view the nature of the litigation and where questions of law and for interpretation of constitutional provisions are involved they should not be assigned to a Single Member. In fact, the proviso itself indicates Parliament's concern to safeguard the interest of claimants by casting an obligation on the Chairman and Members who hear the cases to refer to a regular bench of two members such cases which in their opinion require to be heard by a bench of two Members. We would like to add that it would be open to either party appearing before a Single Member to sugge....