Office & Organization
 
 
ENACTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL (AMENDMENT) ACT. 2006
        Some important amendments have been brought to Administrative Tribunal Act,1985.
       The important features of the Administrative Tribunals(Amendment) Act,2006 are as follows :
  1. The post of Vice-chairman of the Administrative Tribunal have been abolished by the amendment.
  2. Prior to the amendment the tenure of the service of a Chairman of a Tribunal was for a term of 5(five) consecutive years from his date of appointment or 65 years of age, whichever is earlier, but according to the amended provision, the tenure of service of a Chairman is for a term of 5 consecutive years from his date of his appointment or 68 years of age whichever is earlier.
           Similarly, the tenure of service of a member of Administrative Tribunal was for a term of 5 years from his date of appointment or 62 years of age whichever was earlier. But consequent upon the present amendment, tenure of service of a member of Administrative Tribunal is for a term of 5 years from his date of appointment or 65 years of age whichever is earlier.
  3. According the latest amendment, condition of service of Chairman and Members of Administrative Tribunals have been made at par with a Judge of a High Court.
FUNCTIONING OF THE TRIBUNAL
        The West Bengal Administrative Tribunal started functioning from January 16, 1995, but it could not function effectively before February, 1996 due to some litigation. At present, the Tribunal is frunctioning full fledgedly with 3 benches being manned by the Hon'ble Chairman, two Judicial Members and three Administrative Members.
       The Registry of the Tribunal is working under the general supervision of a Registrar who is also functioning as head of the office for the purpous of all establishment matter. Deputy Registrar of the Tribunal functions as Drawing and Disbursing Officer.
       While entertaining cases, the Tribunal mainly deals with service or conditions of service as embodied in the Acts and Rules e.g.
  1. W.B.S.R. Pt I and Pt. II.
  2. W.B.S.(Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1971
  3. W.B.S.(Determination of Seniority) Rules, 1981
  4. Death-cum-Retirement Benefit Rules
  5. Police Regulation of Bengal, 1943
  6. Police Regulation of Calcutta and similar other Acts and Rules.
       Initially, the Tribunal started functioning with only one Bench. The 2nd and 3rd Benches were created and started functioning from November 1996 and December 1997 respectively. The posts were created according to the need from time to time.

Sl. No.
Name of the Post		 Sanctioned
Strength
01.
02.
03.		 Registrar/Addl. Registrar
Deputy Registrar
Assistant Registrar		 1
1
1
04. Librarian 1
05.
06.
07 .
08 .		 P.A. to Chairman
P.A. to Member
Court Officer
Stenographer		 18
09.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17 .
18 .		 Section Officer
Accountant
Superintendent
Head Assistant
U.D. Assistant
Record Keeper
Grade-I Typist
L.D. Assistant
Cashier
Basic Grade Typist 		2
1
3
1
8
1
1
8
1
4
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.		 Library Assistant
Muharrir
Record Supplier
Cash Sarkar
Library Attendant
Duftry
Group D
Night Guard
Durwan 		1
1
3
1
1
1
21
1
1
       The service conditions of Officers and staff of the Tribunal are governed by the rules framed by the State Government from time to time.
STATUS OF COMPUTERISATION
        The Tribunal’s work is yet to be computerized fully. However, full computerization is expected to render more efficient functioning and for achieving the goal of quick disposal for which the Tribunal was established.
       The National Informatics Centre (NIC), Kolkata, has been entrusted to perform the full computerization job for the office and they have already taken care of this with effect from March 2006.
       Presently, site preparation job is over. System study had been completed. System Requirement Study (SRS) had been made. It has already approved by the competent authority of the user end and accordingly an application software CCMIS (Computerized case Management and Information system) has been prepared on Free and Open source technology. Rigorous bugging/debugging are still going on. However, the application software is in working condition through which data are entered and reports are generated as per requirement. Filing of cases are entered directly and stored in database for further use. Cause List ( now for Bench I ) are generated automatically through CCMIS.
       The West Bengal Administrative Tribunal, as stated earlier, has been set-up for quick settlement of disputes and complaints with respect to recruitment of a person in Govt. establishment and conditions of service of the employees working under the State of West Bengal. The Tribunal is trying its best to dispose of the cases presented before it as fast as possible. Some old cases are still pending in the Tribunal because of non-availability of adequate member during the past few years. The situation went so far at one point of the time that in the absence of any member, entire function of the Tribunal, Judicial as also administrative, had to be discharged single handedly by the Chairman. The entire scenario has, of course, since changed due to functioning of all three Benches. The desirability of taking steps well in advance for filling up the posts should be emphasized for the benefit of the litigant employees.