Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal

Introduction

The Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal was instituted on October 6, 1986, through the Government of India's notification No. A 11019/20/86-A dated October 3, 1986. Initially, the Act's framework excluded the jurisdiction of High Courts and other subordinate courts concerning service matters. However, the Honorable Supreme Court, in the case of L. Chandrakumar v. Union of India, ruled that decisions of Administrative Tribunals can be subject to the appellate jurisdiction of Jurisdictional High Courts, effective from March 18, 1997.

Legislative Framework

Jurisdiction:

KSAT JURISDICTION

There are 3 benches of the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal: the principal bench is at the State capital Bengaluru, and the other 2 benches sit at Belagavi and Kalaburgi respectively.

Rules:

• K.S.A.T (Rules of Practice), 1990
• K.S.A.T (Procedure Rules), 1986
• K.S.A.T (Caveat) Regulation, 1987
• K.S.A.T (Contempt of Tribunal Proceedings) Rules, 1987
• K.S.A.T (Refund of Court Fee), Regulations, 1990
• K.S.A.T (Review Applications) Regulation, 1994

Governance Structure:

Organisation Chart of KSAT

Status of Digitisation

Disposal rate:

There is a specific section dedicated to disposal of cases on the website: KSAT | Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal. It is mentioned year-wise and is prepared like an account.

Disposal at KSAT Bengaluru Bench

Cause list:

There is a detailed e-cause list mentioned in KSAT | Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal. You can even print it or just see it electronically. Different cause lists are mentioned for different benches and courtrooms. The cause-lists are updated daily.

The Cause-list is uploaded on the KSAT website. The official website of Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) provides a cause list in HTML and PDF format, sorted according to Court Hall, Advocate, Corum, and Party Name.

Some notable features of the cause list as updated on the KSAT website include-

1. Video conferencing link for the matters
2. Listing the stage of hearing of the matter such as For Admission, For Preliminary, For Orders on IAs, For Hearing, For Further Hearing along with other details of the matter, such as Advocates appearing for the parties.

Cause List for KSAT

Cases in front of the Principal Bench in Bengaluru

In the first image, the option of selecting the bench and courtroom is mentioned. By clicking on the eye, the user is redirected to the other page where the e-cause list is mentioned. In the e-cause list, the case number and parties involved are mentioned.

Case status:

The Application status of the case filed can be retrieved from the website by filling bench, application type, application number, and year on the webas depicted in the image given below.

Case Status at KSAT

Virtual Hearing/Conferencing:

Virtual hearing and conferencing are allowed as per the notification issued by the SAT in 2022.

Judgments:

Judgments are available on the website but orders are not. Judgments can be retrieved by providing the Application Number, or Party Name/Subject/Name of Judge and Time Period.

Judgment at KSAT

In summary, the status of Digitisation of the KSAT is better than the status of some other State Administrative Tribunals such as that of Goa which do not even have their own website, however, there is still a long way to go in making the interface more user friendly and providing more information.