Who the Tribunal Covers: Questions and Answers

Yes. If you hold a civil post under the Union, CAT is the first court for your service dispute. Section 14 of the Administrative Tribunals Act moved these cases away from civil courts and from the High Court's first look, so a writ filed directly in the High Court will usually be sent back to the tribunal. The High Court comes in later, against the tribunal's order. Before filing, you normally have to use the departmental remedy, which is a separate step.

Most things about the terms of your job. Section 3(q) of the Act covers pay and allowances, pension, seniority, promotion, confirmation, leave, tenure, transfer and disciplinary action. A criminal case against you, a private quarrel with a colleague or a dispute with a cooperative housing society is not a service matter, even if the people involved are all government staff. Our guide on whether your problem is a service matter walks through twelve common situations.

Retirement does not close the door. Pension, gratuity, commutation, leave encashment and pay arrears are service matters, and CAT hears them for retired central government employees just as it does for serving staff. A retiree also gets a choice of bench. Under Rule 6(2) of the CAT (Procedure) Rules, a person no longer in service may file where he ordinarily lives, so a retired postal clerk now settled in Patna need not travel to the bench that covered his last office.

You can. A widow, a dependent child or another family member claiming family pension, arrears or unpaid dues of a deceased central employee is a person aggrieved under Section 19, even though you were never on the department's rolls. Keep the death certificate, the PPO or last pay slip and any rejection letter ready. The tribunal will want to see who refused the claim and on what ground. Our page on family pension claims explains the papers in more detail.

Generally yes. Section 14 covers recruitment and matters concerning recruitment to central civil posts, so disputes about eligibility, document verification, medical fitness or results for posts filled through SSC, UPSC or the Railway Recruitment Boards usually go to CAT. Recruitment to a body outside the tribunal, such as a public sector bank, does not. CAPF constable and sub-inspector recruitment is unsettled at present, so get advice on the forum before you file anything there.

No. Section 2 of the Act keeps members of the armed forces out of CAT altogether. Serving and retired soldiers, sailors and airmen take their service and military pension disputes to the Armed Forces Tribunal, which sits at a Principal Bench in New Delhi and at regional benches. Going to CAT first only wastes time, because the registry will raise a jurisdiction objection and the case will be returned.

Because CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP and SSB are armed forces of the Union, and Section 2 excludes their members from CAT. They are not covered by the Armed Forces Tribunal either, since that tribunal deals only with the Army, Navy and Air Force. So a CAPF member uses the statutory appeal or revision under his force's own Act and rules, and then files a writ petition in the High Court. See the right forum for CAPF and armed forces.

Usually not. A central public sector company is a separate legal person, and its staff come under CAT only if the government has notified that company under Section 14(2). Most large PSUs are not notified, so their officers file writs in the High Court, and workmen often go to the labour forum instead. When Advocate B.K. Singh gets a PSU brief, he checks the company's legal form and the notification list before reading the grievance itself.

No. Public sector banks, the State Bank of India and regional rural banks are outside CAT, so a bank officer or clerk challenges a transfer, penalty or pension decision through the bank's internal appeal and then a writ petition in the High Court. Award staff covered by labour law may also have a remedy before the industrial forum. Whatever the route, keep the bank's appeal deadline in view while you decide.

No. CAT handles central government service. State government employees go to the State Administrative Tribunal where their state has one, for example in Maharashtra, Karnataka or Kerala, and otherwise file a writ in the High Court. A state employee on deputation to a central ministry faces a harder question. There the answer turns on which government passed the order you want to challenge and what the order is about.

Yes. Members of the All India Services, meaning the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service, come under CAT even though most of their careers are spent with a state government. Cadre allocation, empanelment, APAR grading, promotion and disciplinary disputes go to the CAT bench for the place where the officer is posted. So an IAS officer of the Odisha cadre who wants to challenge an APAR grading goes to the CAT Cuttack Bench, not to any state forum.

Read the notifications yourself rather than trusting the body's website or an HR note. Since the master notification of 2 May 1986, the central government has added bodies one at a time through gazette notifications under Section 14(2). Search for the exact legal name of your society or institute, since a lab and its parent council can be listed differently. Our guide to checking a Section 14(2) notification shows how to do it.

The list is long and keeps growing. Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, CSIR and ICAR are among the notified bodies, so their staff file in CAT just like government servants. Ten Jammu and Kashmir bodies were added in August 2024, and sixteen of the newer AIIMS institutes in January 2026. Because the list changes, confirm your own organisation's entry instead of relying on a colleague who works somewhere else.

Generally not, as far as we know. Most central universities, including DU, JNU, BHU and AMU, do not appear to be notified under Section 14(2), so their teaching and non-teaching staff file writs in the High Court. Ten universities in Jammu and Kashmir were brought under CAT in August 2024, and that notification is under challenge. Read the current position for your own university on our central university staff forum page.

For the tribunal's purposes, yes. GDS are not regular departmental employees, but the Supreme Court has long treated the old extra-departmental agents as holders of a civil post, and CAT hears GDS disputes on put-off duty, TRCA, engagement and termination. Your conditions come from the GDS (Conduct and Engagement) Rules rather than the CCS rules, so the arguments differ from a postal assistant's case even though the forum is the same.

CAT. Section 14 expressly covers civilians in the defence services and those holding civil posts connected with defence, so dockyard workers, MES staff, Army depot storekeepers and DRDO employees all file in CAT. The Armed Forces Tribunal hears only people subject to the Army Act, Navy Act or Air Force Act. Many defence civilians assume otherwise because their office sits inside a cantonment, but the address of the office does not decide the forum.

It depends on the dispute. Grievances rooted in government service before 1 October 2021, such as old pay fixation, pension rights or a pending disciplinary case from that period, have a strong claim to be heard by CAT. A complaint about how the new defence company treats you today may need another forum. Advocate B.K. Singh usually asks such clients for the date of the order and the authority that signed it, since those two facts often decide where the case goes.

The Principal Bench in New Delhi. Delhi Police personnel, GNCTD teachers and other Delhi government employees, along with DSSSB candidates, file there. Police discipline runs under the Delhi Police (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, 1980 instead of the CCS (CCA) Rules, so the grounds look different. Staff of municipal bodies such as the MCD are a separate matter and need a check before filing. More detail is on our Delhi Police service cases page.

Sometimes. Casual labourers in the Railways and the Department of Posts have long brought temporary status and regularisation claims to CAT, because their engagement was under central schemes. A worker hired and paid by a private contractor stands on weaker ground: he does not hold a post under the Union, and his claim usually lies against the contractor under labour law. Collect proof of who engaged you and who paid your wages before anything else.

CAT, for anything about the civil job. Pay fixation in the civil post, the ESM quota, seniority and civil pension are all disputes with a civilian employer. Your military pension is a different matter. A cut or wrong calculation of the pension earned in uniform goes to the Armed Forces Tribunal. Many re-employed ex-servicemen end up with one grievance in each forum, so keep them separate and do not mix both into a single OA.

No. The court staff and the legislature staff are kept out by Section 2 of the Act: anyone serving the Supreme Court, a High Court or a subordinate court, and anyone on the secretariat of Parliament or a state legislature. Such employees take a grievance to their own administration first and then to the High Court by writ. So an assistant in the Lok Sabha Secretariat, though paid from central funds, cannot file an OA, and a district court clerk has no CAT remedy either.

Not while you are a serving member. The Railway Protection Force is an armed force of the Union, so its members' service disputes stay outside CAT and go to the High Court after the remedies under the RPF Act and rules. The Delhi High Court held in January 2026, in Union of India v. Kapil Gurjar, that recruitment disputes of RPF candidates, who are not yet members, can be heard by CAT. That line between candidate and member matters a great deal.

As a rule, neither. Both are armed forces of the Union, so Section 2 keeps their members out of CAT, while the Armed Forces Tribunal Act covers only the Army, Navy and Air Force. Their usual path is the internal statutory remedy and then a writ petition in the High Court. Civilian employees working in these organisations are different: if they hold civil posts under the Union, CAT hears them. Confirm the position for your force before you draft.

No. Agniveers are enrolled under the Army Act, Navy Act or Air Force Act for their four-year engagement, so they count as members of the armed forces and fall outside CAT. Their service grievances ordinarily go to the Armed Forces Tribunal. Things change after the engagement ends. If a former Agniveer later joins a central civil post, disputes about that civil job come to CAT, but a job in a CAPF would still not.

Possibly, if you were engaged against a post under the Union. CAT has heard contractual staff hired directly by central offices on abrupt termination and unequal pay, though success depends heavily on the contract's terms. A consultancy engagement for a task, with no post behind it, is much harder. Advocate B.K. Singh asks such clients for the sanction letter, the advertisement and the engagement order, because together they show what you really held.

Yes. A dismissed or removed employee is a classic person aggrieved, and the dismissal order is exactly the kind of order Section 19 lets you challenge. Like a retiree, you may file at the bench for the place where you now live under Rule 6(2). The departmental appeal usually comes first, though, so do not let the 45-day appeal period slip away while you look for a lawyer or wait for a copy of the inquiry file.

Yes. You need not be confirmed or permanent. A probationer discharged during probation, an ad hoc appointee reverted to a lower post, or a temporary employee whose services were ended under the CCS (Temporary Service) Rules can all file an OA. The tribunal's main question is different in these cases: was the order a simple discharge, or a punishment in disguise? Our page on probationer discharge explains that test.

Look at who passed the order and what it concerns. If your parent central department refuses to take you back, cuts your pay on repatriation or decides your promotion at home, CAT can hear it, because that is a dispute with your cadre controlling authority. A grievance purely about how the PSU treated you during the posting may have to go to the High Court, since the borrowing company is not under CAT. Occasionally both need to be made parties.

Generally yes, for posts under the UT administration. Staff of the Chandigarh administration, for instance, file before the Chandigarh Bench, and Andaman and Nicobar employees come under the Kolkata Bench, which has held circuit sittings at Sri Vijaya Puram. Local bodies within a Union Territory may stand on a different footing. Check the bench jurisdiction table on the tribunal's website, and the exact employer named in your appointment letter, before filing.

Yes, since 2020. After the 2019 reorganisation, CAT opened benches at Jammu and Srinagar, and employees of the two Union Territories and of notified local bodies file there. Circuit sittings have been reported at Leh and Kargil. An older online jurisdiction table still shows Chandigarh for these areas, which confuses people, but the Jammu and Srinagar Benches are where these cases now go. Ask the registry if your district is unclear.

They can. Legal heirs may claim amounts that had become payable before death, such as arrears of pay, leave encashment or gratuity, and CAT hears these claims. If the employee had already filed an OA, the heirs should apply to be brought on record in that case rather than start a fresh one. A son or daughter seeking compassionate appointment is a recruitment matter, which also comes to CAT but rests on a different scheme.

No. Teachers and staff of private or aided schools, colleges and trusts are not in central government service, even if a central board affiliates the school or central grants pay part of the salary. Their disputes go to the school tribunal or education authority under state law, or to the High Court. A CBSE affiliation or a central grant does not turn a private school's teacher into a central employee for the tribunal.

Usually, yes. Medical facilities and leave travel concession are conditions of service for central employees and pensioners, so refusal of CGHS reimbursement, rejection of a past LTC claim or denial of a pensioner's card can be service matters. The tribunal will still expect a representation first and will check the claim against the scheme's own rules. Say a retired Assistant in Bhopal had a bypass surgery bill cut in half: that is a CAT case once his representation is rejected.

It can. Since L. Chandra Kumar v. Union of India (1997), tribunals may decide whether a service rule, a DoPT office memorandum or even a central statute is valid, though they cannot rule on the Administrative Tribunals Act that created them. Any challenge then goes to a High Court Division Bench by writ. In practice, the tribunal looks harder at an office memorandum that contradicts a statutory rule than at a broad policy choice of the government.

Yes. EPFO and ESIC are statutory bodies, not government departments, so their staff can approach CAT only if the body has been notified under Section 14(2). Do not assume the answer either way from what colleagues did in the past. If the body is notified, the case goes to the bench where you are posted; if not, it is a writ in the High Court. Our page on ESIC and EPFO staff sets out the check.

Borderline cases are common: a body that changed its legal form, a deputation gone wrong, or a recruitment straddling two employers. Send your appointment letter, the impugned order and any notification you have found, and Advocate B.K. Singh can tell you which forum fits and what the time limit looks like there. You can reach the office through the contact page for an in-person or online consultation.