TRIBUNALS in Indian Constitution | Article 323A | Article 323B | Administrative Tribunal | UPSC

Tribunal is a quasi-judicial institution that is set up to deal with problems such as resolving administrative or tax-related disputes. It performs a number of functions like adjudicating disputes, determining rights between contesting parties, making an administrative decision, reviewing an existing administrative decision and so forth.

Tribunals were not part of the original constitution, it was incorporated in the Indian Constitution by 42nd Amendment Act, 1976.
Article 323-A deals with Administrative Tribunals.
Article 323-B deals with tribunals for other matters.

Articles 323 A and 323 B differ in the following three aspects:

1. While Article 323 A contemplates the establishment of tribunals for public service matters only, Article 323 B contemplates the establishment of tribunals for certain other matters (mentioned above).

2. While tribunals under Article 323 A can be established only by Parliament, tribunals under Article 323 B can be established both by Parliament and state legislatures with respect to matters falling within their legislative competence.

3. Under Article 323 A, only one tribunal for the Centre and one for each state or two or more states may be established. There is no question of the hierarchy of tribunals, whereas under Article 323 B a hierarchy of tribunals may be created.

The Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 provides for three types of tribunals:

The Central Government establishes an administrative tribunal called the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

The Central Government may, upon receipt of a request in this behalf from any State Government, establish an administrative tribunal for such State employees.

Two or more States might ask for a joint tribunal, which is called the Joint Administrative Tribunal (JAT), which exercises powers of the administrative tribunals for such States.

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