[Breaking] Allahabad High Court takes suo motu cognizance of strikes by UP Bar Associations, puts on hold establishment of Education Tribunal

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday ordered that while the Uttar Pradesh State legislature may complete the process of enacting the Uttar Pradesh Education Services Tribunal Bill, 2021, the Education Tribunal can be established only with the leave of the High Court (In Re Constitution Of Education Tribunals v. State of UP)..The order came in a suo motu case registered by the Court in view of the ongoing strikes by the Allahabad High Court Bar Association and the Awadh Bar Association over the establishment of the Education Tribunal in Uttar Pradesh .The Bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice SS Shamshery further directed the State government to invite representatives of the Bar Associations of Allahabad and Lucknow for deliberations on the issues that led to the boycott of court in both cities.Notice on behalf of the State government was accepted by Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal..The Court took a dim view of the ongoing boycott, noting in its order,"By the absentation from judicial work, valuable judicial time has been criminally wasted and that has effected judicial working of Allahabad High Court for other important jurisdictions also......The largest High Court of the country cannot afford such nonfunctionality of Courts on any count.".Interestingly, the Court noted in the order that the establishment of the education tribunal would not serve to speedily dispose of service cases relating to teaching and non-teaching staff of educational institutions."As per the demand charters given to the High Court, the establishment of tribunal would not satisfy the object of expeditious disposal of the cases concerned," the Court noted..To drive this point home, the Court pulled out the disposal rates of service matters which are to be adjudicated by the proposed tribunal.It was found that in the last 20 years, 1,88,632 cases were instituted at the Allahabad Bench of the High Court, with 33,290 pending cases. At the Lucknow Bench, 55,913 cases were instituted over the last two decades, out of which 15,003 matters were pending.In light of these statistics, the Bench stated,"On going through the statistics available, we are of the view that the pendency of the service matters in question can be effectively reduced by constituting special bench/benches for the purpose. However, for smooth functioning of such benches, the prime requirement is participation of Advocates in proceedings. The proposed enactment is meant with an object for expeditious disposal of service matters but the absentation of lawyers from judicial proceedings is causing serious injury to the disposal of such cases by the present judicial forum.".The Court went on to pass the following directions:(i) The Chief Justice, Allahabad High Court be requested to constitute appropriate dedicated Benches at Allahabad as well as at Lucknow for expeditious disposal of service matters related to teaching and non-teaching staff of aided institutions. (ii) The Legislature may complete the process of enacting the Act of 2021, if so desires, but, shall establish Educational Tribunals as proposed only after the leave of this Court. (iii) The State Government is requested to invite representatives of the Bar Associations of the Allahabad High Court at Prayagraj as well as at Lucknow to have deliberations with regard to their demands which are being agitated by different demand charters while giving the present call for absentation from judicial work..Interestingly, the Court declined to intervene or pass any orders in the controversy regarding the establishment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Tribunal in Uttar Pradesh, another reason behind the ongoing strikes.It was observed that the matter is "under consideration of this Court in a writ petition filed at Lucknow, hence, we do not consider it appropriate to pass any order in that regard in this petition for writ.".PIL filed before Allahabad High Court seeking establishment of State Bench of GST Tribunal in Lucknow.The order concludes with the hope that the Bar Associations will resume judicial work forthwith..The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has been abstaining from judicial work since last week. In a resolution passed recently, it demanded that the principal seat of the Education Tribunal be established at Allahabad..The Awadh Bar Association, on the other hand, has been opposing the 2021 Bill because earlier it was notified in the 2019 Bill that the Tribunal would be established in Lucknow, as the main bench. Now, the government has decided to bifurcate the sittings of the Tribunal.The members propose that the main seat should be in Lucknow without any bifurcation of the Education Tribunal, as there is enough place/infrastructure to comply with the requirements.Lucknow Bar Association decides to boycott ‘Judicial work’, opposes constitution of GST Tribunal State bench at Allahabad.[Read the order]