By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Monday issued notices to the central and the Bihar governments on a plea for security to the judicial officers and advocates of the Patna bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
A bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnann and Justice R.V. Raveendran issued the notices following a letter written by the CAT Bar Association seeking security for the judicial officers and the advocates of the Patna bench of the CAT. The letter was treated as a public interest suit.
The letter comes in the wake of the killing of a friend of a judicial officer of CAT in Patna.
The bench issued notices without any time limit for the two governments to reply. In such cases, the reply is expected within eight weeks.
The CAT, with its principal bench in Delhi and auxiliary benches in various state headquarters, is the judicial forum for redressal of the grievances of the central government employees against their employer.
The letter, seeking appropriate security environment in the Patna bench of CAT for its "free and fair" functioning, referred to the May 21 incident at the official residence of CAT member Sadhna Srivastava, in which her guest Suresh Mehta was thrown off the multi-storied building by two miscreants.
Mehta, a senior Tata Motors official, died after the fall from the eighth floor of the building.