Tribunal Must Not Reject a Claim on Merits Before Authorities Decide Pending Representations

The petitioner, an Assistant Master, submitted representations seeking inclusion of his service in the Postal Department from 24 November 1997 to 30 May 2007 in calculating his qualifying service for pension and other benefits.

The respondents did not decide the representations, so he approached the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT).

The KSAT dismissed his application on the merits.

He then challenged that order under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution.

1. Whether the KSAT erred by deciding the petitioner’s claim on the merits rather than directing the respondents to consider his pending representations.

2. Whether the petitioner was entitled to a direction requiring the respondents to consider his representations and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law.

The Court exercised its supervisory and writ jurisdiction under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution to review the KSAT’s order.

It applied the principle that where representations seeking administrative relief remain undecided, the competent authorities may be directed to consider them and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law.

The judgment cited no statute governing the substantive pension claim and relied on no precedent.

The Court noted that the petitioner had submitted representations seeking recognition of his prior Postal Department service and that the respondents had not passed orders on them.

It considered the KSAT’s dismissal on the merits, without directing the respondents to address the representations, arbitrary and erroneous, and therefore set the order aside.

The Court did not determine whether the prior service qualified for pension purposes; instead, it left that question for the respondents to decide in accordance with law.

It granted the petitioner liberty to submit a fresh representation with supporting documents and directed the respondents, if he did so, to consider the representations at Annexures A4 to A6 together with the fresh representation and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law within four weeks of receiving a copy of the High Court’s order.