In short. Both Bihar and Jharkhand send their central service disputes to a single CAT bench at Niyojan Bhawan, Bailey Road, Patna; Jharkhand cases are often taken up by its circuit bench at Ranchi. Union employees, people on central pensions and applicants for central jobs in either state belong here. Contested cases usually take one to three years. Confirm that your employer is central, count a year from the final order, and get the OA prepared. This website is run by a private law firm, not by the tribunal.
Is this your situation?
- You are a Gramin Dak Sevak in a Bihar or Jharkhand village and have been put off duty, removed or denied your TRCA.
- You work for East Central Railway, South Eastern Railway's Ranchi or Chakradharpur division, or the wheel plant at Bela, and have a pay, promotion or penalty dispute.
- You are a central employee in Ranchi, Dhanbad or Jamshedpur and want to know if your case can be heard at Ranchi.
- You retired from a central department, live in Bihar or Jharkhand, and your pension or gratuity has gone wrong.
- Your father or mother died in central service and the family's request for compassionate appointment has been rejected or ignored.
- You work for a coal company, SAIL, HEC or a bank and are not sure if CAT can hear you.
- A tribunal order has been passed in your case and you need to know whether the writ goes to Patna or Ranchi.
Short answers for Bihar and Jharkhand
- Central employee posted in Bihar. File at the Patna Bench. Hearings are at Patna.
- Central employee posted in Jharkhand. File with the Patna Bench; Jharkhand matters are commonly heard by its circuit bench at Ranchi. Check the current listing practice.
- Retired central employee living in either state. You may file here even if your last posting was elsewhere, under Rule 6(2) of the procedure rules.
- State government employee of Bihar or Jharkhand. Not CAT. Neither state has a state administrative tribunal, so you go to your High Court.
- Coal company, SAIL, HEC, DVC or bank employee. Generally not CAT. A writ in the High Court is the usual route.
- Writ against the tribunal's order. Patna High Court for Patna orders; the Jharkhand High Court has heard writs against orders of the Ranchi circuit bench.
The Patna Bench on Bailey Road
The bench works from Niyojan Bhawan, D Block, in the Income Tax Circle area of Bailey Road, Patna. Its Original Applications carry the code 051, so a case filed this year looks like O.A. 051/00XXX/2026. Search with that code when you look for status or old orders on your issue.
Bihar's central workforce is heavy on railway and postal staff, and so is this bench's cause list. Gramin Dak Sevak cases, railway penalty and MACP matters, compassionate appointment refusals and pension disputes make up a large share of the work.
Before going further, be clear about what this page is. It is the website of B.K. Singh & Associates, a private firm of advocates. The tribunal does not run it and has not approved it. For cause lists, filing defects and notices, use the tribunal's portal or ask at the registry.
The circuit bench at Ranchi
Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in November 2000, but no separate CAT bench was set up. Instead, the Patna Bench holds circuit sittings at Ranchi, and orders passed there are described as orders of the Patna Bench, Circuit Bench at Ranchi. For an employee in Dhanbad, Bokaro or Jamshedpur, this means the case can usually be heard closer to home.
Think of a made-up storekeeper at a central office in Jamshedpur. If his OA is listed at Ranchi, his counsel travels a few hours instead of half a day to Patna, and he can attend himself if the bench wants to see him. If the matter is listed at Patna, he need not go; counsel appears and he stays on the phone. Either way, the order he gets is an order of the Patna Bench.
The Ranchi sittings are part of the Patna Bench, not a separate tribunal. Your case keeps its 051 number, and the bench decides which matters go to Ranchi and when. The sitting days are notified, and the arrangement can change, so check the current notice before you plan travel. Urgent matters that cannot wait for the next Ranchi sitting can be mentioned at Patna or by video. Our page for central employees in Ranchi covers the city in more detail.
A May 2026 Jharkhand High Court ruling on single-member orders
In Santosh Kumar v. Union of India (W.P.(S) No. 3316 of 2026, decided on 12 May 2026), a Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court quashed an order of the Patna Bench, Circuit Bench at Ranchi, that had dismissed a railway employee's OA as time-barred. The reason was not the delay itself. The order had been passed by a single administrative member, and the High Court held that Section 5 of the Administrative Tribunals Act requires a bench of one judicial and one administrative member, unless the single-member exception in Section 5(6) is properly invoked.
The case was sent back to the tribunal for a fresh decision. The point for employees is practical: if an adverse order in your case was passed by one member, check whether the order or the bench's roster shows that the Chairman had classified the case for single-member hearing. If it does not, there may be a ground for a writ. It is also a recent instance of the Jharkhand High Court, rather than the Patna High Court, deciding a writ against a Ranchi circuit order.
Central workplaces in Bihar
Hajipur is the seat of East Central Railway, whose Danapur, Sonpur and Samastipur divisions lie in Bihar. Add the wheel plant at Bela outside Chhapra and the Northeast Frontier Railway's Katihar division, and the railways alone account for a good part of the bench's cause list. Bihar's postal circle has thousands of branch offices staffed by Gramin Dak Sevaks, from Kishanganj to Kaimur. For railway staff, see our page on railway employees' service cases; for postal staff, our page on postal employees and GDS.
Other central offices include income tax and central GST in Patna, Muzaffarpur and Gaya, the land customs station at Raxaul on the Nepal border, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya schools, the ICAR complex for the eastern region at Patna, and defence civilians at Danapur Cantonment and Gaya. The ordnance factory at Rajgir in Nalanda moved to a defence company in 2021, which raises forum questions for its staff.
AIIMS Patna staff should check whether their institute is covered by the January 2026 notification reported to bring newer AIIMS under the tribunal (S.O. 186(E) of 13 January 2026). Our guide on checking a Section 14(2) notification shows where to look.
Central workplaces in Jharkhand
South Eastern Railway's Ranchi and Chakradharpur divisions and East Central Railway's Dhanbad division employ large numbers of railway staff in Jharkhand. The Jharkhand postal circle, income tax and central GST offices in Ranchi and Jamshedpur, Kendriya Vidyalayas, and defence civilians at the regimental centres in Ramgarh and at Dipatoli in Ranchi also bring cases to this bench.
Jharkhand differs from Bihar in one big way: much of its organised workforce is in central public sector companies, not in government departments. Coal India's subsidiaries, SAIL at Bokaro, HEC in Ranchi, MECON and Uranium Corporation at Jaduguda employ many people who assume they are central government employees. Staff of AIIMS Deoghar, like those at AIIMS Patna, should check the January 2026 notification mentioned above. They are not, for tribunal purposes, and the next block explains where they go.
Coal, steel and other employers that are not under CAT
- Coal companies. CCL, BCCL, ECL and their parent Coal India are central PSUs. Their employees generally file writs in the High Court, or use labour forums for workmen's disputes.
- Steel and engineering companies. SAIL Bokaro, HEC, MECON and similar companies are outside CAT unless notified, which they have not been.
- DVC and banks. Staff of the Damodar Valley Corporation and of nationalised banks generally go to the High Court.
- CRPF, CISF and other forces. CRPF has a heavy presence in Jharkhand and CISF guards many industrial sites. Their personnel usually file in the High Court. See our page on CAPF, PSU and bank service writs.
- Central universities. Staff of the central universities in Bihar and Jharkhand are usually not under CAT, since most central universities are not notified.
- State government staff. Bihar and Jharkhand state employees go to the Patna and Jharkhand High Courts respectively.
Rules that fix the forum and the deadline
Rule 6, CAT (Procedure) Rules, 1987
Where you are posted today gives you one bench; where the grievance took shape, even in part, may give you another. People no longer in service, by retirement or otherwise, get a third: the bench nearest their home. Think of a railway guard who worked thirty years out of Howrah and went back to his village in Siwan. Patna is open to him.
Sections 20 and 21, Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985
Use the appeal or representation under your rules first, but you need not wait beyond six months for a decision. After that you have twelve months, counted from the final order or from the date the half-year expired. Beyond that, a delay application with honest, specific reasons must go with the OA.
Section 5, Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985
A bench ordinarily has one judicial and one administrative member. Section 5(6) allows a single member to hear certain classes of cases specified by the Chairman. As the Jharkhand High Court's May 2026 ruling shows, an order passed by a single member outside that permission can be challenged.
Section 19(4), Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985
Once your OA is admitted, any departmental appeal or representation on the same grievance abates. If your appeal is close to a decision, there may be reason to wait.
Railway staff at the edges of the bench
East Central Railway's Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya division has its headquarters in Uttar Pradesh, close to the Bihar border. A loco pilot posted at Pt. DDU Junction is posted in Allahabad Bench territory, so that bench is open to him. If the order he is challenging came from the zonal headquarters at Hajipur, the Patna Bench may also be available, because part of the cause of action arose there. He should choose before filing, with the writ forum in mind.
The same choice faces staff of the Dhanbad division, which belongs to East Central Railway but sits in Jharkhand, and staff in the Katihar division who are controlled from the Northeast Frontier Railway's headquarters in Guwahati. The rule is the same in every case: present posting, or the place where any part of the dispute arose. Getting this wrong does not usually kill a case, but it can cost months.
Taking a case to the Patna Bench, step by step
Check the forum and the date
Use the short answers above to confirm CAT is right for you. Note when the final order reached you, and the date one year later. If you are relying on a representation that has not been answered, count six months from it first.
Exhaust the departmental route
A punishment order, under either the CCS (CCA) Rules or the railway's own discipline rules, can be appealed, normally inside 45 days. GDS have their own appeal route under their conduct and engagement rules. For other grievances, send a representation through your office to the authority who can decide it, and keep the receipt.
Arrange papers and translations
Pleadings are normally in English. If key documents are in Hindi, ask your counsel whether the bench will accept them as they are or wants an English translation. Number every page and keep them in date order.
Draft and verify the OA
Your counsel writes up the story in numbered paragraphs, adds the legal grounds and the precise orders you want, including any immediate stay, and closes with a verification. A vakalatnama and every paper you rely on go with it.
File at Patna or online
Papers go in at the Bailey Road counter or on the e-filing portal. The fee under Rule 7 is a token Rs 50, but confirm the amount and how to pay it with the registry before you go. If you are in Jharkhand, request a Ranchi listing at this point.
Follow the case to judgment
Once notice issues, the department answers and you can respond to its answer. Then comes the wait for a final hearing date, sometimes long. On the day of judgment, apply for the certified copy; review and writ deadlines are counted from it.
Advocate B.K. Singh usually asks a Bihar or Jharkhand client for the name and designation of the officer who signed the order before anything else. In GDS and railway cases especially, an order signed by an officer without the power to pass it is a common and strong ground.
Patna Bench: rough timeline and outgoings
| Stage | Time it tends to take | Money involved, broadly |
|---|---|---|
| Appeal or representation | Appeal within 45 days in penalty cases; up to six months for a reply | Postage only |
| Preparing the OA | Two to four weeks | Copying, notary and any translation costs |
| Filing and defect clearance | One to two weeks | Rs 50 fee under Rule 7, subject to the current rule |
| Admission and interim prayer | First listing usually within weeks at Patna; Ranchi listings follow the circuit dates | Counsel's fee agreed in writing at the start |
| Reply, rejoinder and waiting | Six months to two years | Further appearances as agreed |
| Final order | One to three years from filing in a contested case | Costs are rarely ordered either way |
| Writ in the Patna or Jharkhand High Court | One year or more | Separate court fee and counsel fee |
A branch postmaster in Madhubani, off duty for fourteen months
Here's a made-up example. Rakesh, 44, is a Gramin Dak Sevak Branch Postmaster in a village in Madhubani district. After an audit finds a cash shortage of a few thousand rupees, which he made good the same day, he is put off duty. Fourteen months later he has received no charge memo, no decision and nothing beyond the ex gratia allowance for put-off-duty periods.
He has written twice to the divisional office. The second letter, sent eight months ago, has not been answered. Since more than six months have passed, he can file. His OA asks the bench to direct the department either to start proceedings within a fixed time or to reinstate him, and to decide what he is owed for the off-duty period.
The bench issues notice. The department replies that an inquiry is planned. The bench directs that the inquiry be completed within a set number of months, failing which he is to be taken back on duty. This is invented to show how such a case can run; a real case depends on the papers, and where serious fraud is alleged the bench may simply let the inquiry go ahead. Our guide on GDS put off duty and ex gratia explains the rules.
Papers to bring to the first consultation
- The order you are challenging, with anything that shows the date it reached you
- Appointment or engagement letter and the latest pay slip or TRCA statement
- Promotion, MACP or pay fixation orders
- Every appeal or representation, with the postal or diary receipt
- Any reply or interim letter from the department
- For discipline: charge memo, your reply, inquiry report, penalty and appellate orders
- For pension: PPO, last pay certificate and any recovery or withholding letter
- For compassionate appointment: death certificate, family details, income proof and the rejection letter
- For candidates: the advertisement, admit card, result and rejection notice
Which High Court hears the writ
Since L. Chandra Kumar (1997), the losing side at the tribunal goes to two judges of the High Court that has the tribunal bench within its territory. A Patna order therefore goes to the Patna High Court. For orders of the Circuit Bench at Ranchi, the Jharkhand High Court has heard writs, as the May 2026 Santosh Kumar ruling shows.
A wider dispute is waiting in the Supreme Court: in 2023 a two-judge bench sent Union of India v. Sanjiv Chaturvedi to a larger bench to decide which High Court can examine a CAT order. Whatever it decides could matter where the employee is in one state and the bench in another. For now, follow the place where the order was signed. Our page on writs against tribunal orders explains the grounds the High Court considers, and our page on special leave petitions covers the step after that.
Cases this bench sees often
Gramin Dak Sevak cases are at the top. Put-off-duty periods that stretch for a year or more, removal after an inquiry the GDS says was one-sided, disputes over the TRCA slab and the online engagement process all come here. GDS are not regular departmental employees, and their rules give them fewer protections, so the details of the engagement letter and the conduct rules matter.
Compassionate appointment is the other big category, especially in railway and postal families. The scheme is not a right, and the department weighs financial distress and the limited vacancies available. Refusals without a proper assessment, or a request left undecided for years, can be challenged. Our page on compassionate appointment explains how the scheme works.
Retired staff bring pension and gratuity claims, the extra increment for pension that June-end retirees now claim, and deductions of money paid by mistake years ago. Railway employees in both states bring penalty cases, and those facing a criminal case as well should read our page on a criminal trial running alongside departmental proceedings.
Suspension, arrest and a criminal case: a common Bihar and Jharkhand pattern
A good number of discipline cases from these two states begin with a police case. A railway booking clerk is caught in a vigilance trap, a postal assistant is named in an FIR about savings bank fraud, or an employee is arrested in a family dispute. If the employee is kept in custody for more than 48 hours, Rule 10(2) of the CCS (CCA) Rules treats him as suspended from the date of arrest, whether or not anyone issues an order that day.
Suspension is supposed to be reviewed within 90 days, and the Supreme Court said in Ajay Kumar Choudhary (2015) that it should not continue beyond three months without a chargesheet. In practice, we still see employees in Bihar and Jharkhand suspended for a year or more with no review order on file and subsistence allowance stuck at half pay. Those are challengeable. Ask for the review orders under the rules, and if none exist, the OA can say so.
When the criminal case and the departmental inquiry run together, the employee often wants the inquiry stopped until the trial ends. The tribunal grants that only where the charges and the evidence are the same and the case is complex; otherwise both run side by side. An acquittal later helps, but how much depends on whether it was on merits or on benefit of doubt.
Mistakes that cost time at this bench
- Going to CAT from a coal or steel company. CCL, BCCL and SAIL employees who file at CAT will be sent away for want of jurisdiction.
- Sending reminders instead of filing. A fourth reminder to the divisional office does not restart the limitation period. If the first one has been pending six months, the clock is already running.
- Accepting a single-member order without checking. After the May 2026 ruling, check who passed the order and under what authority.
- Missing the Ranchi listing. Jharkhand clients sometimes assume a hearing is at Patna when it is listed at Ranchi, or the other way round. Watch the cause list.
- Not asking for a stay of recovery. Group C staff and pensioners facing deductions should ask for interim relief in the OA itself.
Officers, staff, retirees and candidates: what changes
Group A officers are a smaller share of this bench's work than in Delhi or Kolkata. Their cases are often about deputation and repatriation to a parent cadre, or about ICAR assessment promotions at the eastern region complex, and they turn on the terms of the deputation order or the assessment rules of the year in question.
Group B and C staff bring most discipline, MACP, transfer and recovery cases. For them the key papers are the inquiry file and the pay fixation sheets. Retirees and family pensioners mainly need a correct calculation and a direction to pay with interest. Candidates for railway, postal and other central posts bring certificate, medical and eligibility disputes, and must move fast before the selected candidates join.
Civilian staff at the cantonments in Danapur, Gaya, Ramgarh and Ranchi often learn of the appeal route only when it is too late. Their orders may be signed at a formation headquarters in another state, and the appellate authority is not always named. If you are a defence civilian, ask in writing who your appellate authority is the day the penalty order arrives, and file the appeal inside 45 days even if the answer has not come.
How we work on Patna Bench matters, and when we say no
Our own offices are in Dwarka (New Delhi) and Vaishali (Ghaziabad). Bihar and Jharkhand clients usually send scans on WhatsApp or email; we read them, call back to fill the gaps, and draft from Delhi, while associate counsel at Patna and at Ranchi handle the appearances.
Some files should not become cases. A GDS who admitted the shortage in writing and was removed after a fair inquiry, or a family asking for compassionate appointment twelve years after the death with no fresh hardship, will struggle. Advocate B.K. Singh prefers to tell a client the weak points at the first meeting rather than after the department's reply arrives.
Steps for this week
Confirm that your employer is central, using the short answers at the top. Write down the date the order reached you and the date one year later. Gather the papers in the checklist and arrange them in date order.
If a relieving order, a reversion or a recovery is about to take effect, raise interim relief now, not after the department replies. If you are in Jharkhand, find out when the Ranchi circuit bench next sits, but do not let that delay an urgent filing.
To have your papers looked at or for updates on rulings that affect your case, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a separate CAT bench for Jharkhand?
No. Jharkhand falls under the Patna Bench, which holds a circuit bench at Ranchi. Cases keep their Patna Bench number even when heard at Ranchi.
Can a Bihar state government employee go to CAT Patna?
No. Bihar has no state administrative tribunal, so a state employee's service case is filed as a writ in the Patna High Court.
I work for CCL in Ranchi. Is CAT the right forum?
Generally not. CCL is a central public sector company and is not under CAT. Its employees usually file a writ in the Jharkhand High Court or use labour forums.
Which High Court hears a writ against a Ranchi circuit bench order?
The Jharkhand High Court has heard such writs, including in May 2026. For orders passed at Patna, the writ goes to the Patna High Court.
What if my CAT case was decided by only one member?
Check whether the case was one the Chairman had classified for single-member hearing under Section 5(6). If not, the Jharkhand High Court's May 2026 ruling suggests the order can be challenged.
Can a GDS file a case at CAT Patna?
Yes. Gramin Dak Sevaks are under CAT for disputes about engagement, put-off-duty, removal and allowances. They must usually use their departmental appeal first.
How long does a CAT Patna case take?
A contested case typically takes one to three years. Simple pay or pension claims can end sooner with a time-bound direction to the department.
I retired from a central office in Kolkata and now live in Patna. Where do I file?
Under Rule 6(2), you may file at the Patna Bench because you now live in Bihar. The Kolkata Bench is also available because the orders came from there.