Dhirendra Pratap Singh vs Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi

M. Katju and Rakesh Tiwari, JJ.—Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Satish Chaturvedi, learned counsel for the Union Public Service Commission.

The petitioner has prayed that he should be allowed to appear in the Civil Service Examination for recruitment to All India Services, which is going to be held by the Union Public Service Commission.

In our opinion, this Court does not have jurisdiction in the matter as u/s 14 of Administrative Tribunal Act, even recruitment matters are to be adjudicated by the Central Administrative Tribunal. The language of Section 14 of the Administrative Tribunal Act may be contrasted with the language in the U.P. Public Service, Tribunal Act, 1976, in which service matters can be adjudicated by the Tribunal. In other words, while under the U.P. Public Service Tribunal Act matters relating to recruitment before entering into service cannot be adjudicated by the U.P. Public Service Tribunal, such matters can be adjudicated by the Central Administrative Tribunal in view of Section 14(1)(a) of the Administrative Tribunal Act.

The Supreme Court in L. Chandra Kumar Vs. Union of India and others, has observed that if a matter is cognizable by the Central Administrative Tribunal, the aggrieved person has to first approach the Tribunal and only thereafter he can come to the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. Such a person cannot approach the High Court directly if he can approach the Central Administrative Tribunal. Hence, we have ho jurisdiction in the matter and the petitioner may approach the Central Administrative Tribunal in respect of his grievance.

With the aforesaid observations the petition is dismissed.

Let a certified copy of this order be issued today on payment of usual charges to learned counsel for the parties.