Bhubaneswar: Accepting the long-pending request of the Odisha Government, the Centre has abolished the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT). A gazetted notification in this regard has been issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

In the notification, the DoPT said it has quashed the notification issued earlier on July 4, 1986 for setting up of SAT to redress various grievances of state Government employees.

Worth mentioning, the Odisha cabinet had approved abolition of SAT on September 9, 2015. Though the decision was opposed by a few quarters, the state Government had requested the Centre to scrap the tribunal after obtaining approval of the Orissa High Court for the same. The matter was pending with the Centre since then.

Yesterday, the Centre abolished the SAT under Section- 4 (2) of Administrative Tribunal Act 1985 and Section-21 of General Clauses Act.

Established on July 14, 1986, the SAT had its main bench in Bhubaneswar, a regular bench in Cuttack and circuit benches in Sambalpur and Berhampur.