Centre clears appointment of 5 tribunal chiefs

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared the proposal of the Department of Financial Services for the appointment of chairpersons in all five Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRAT), Live Law reported.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared the proposal of the Department of Financial Services for the appointment of chairpersons in all five Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRAT), Live Law reported.

The appointments came a day after the Supreme Court expressed anguish over the ‘knee jerk’ actions in filling up vacant posts in various tribunals.

All the five appointments were made at the salary of ₹2,50,000 per month for a period of four years, or till attaining the age of 70 years, or until further orders, whichever is the earliest, it added.

The appointments came a day after the Supreme Court expressed anguish over the “knee jerk” actions in filling up vacant posts in various tribunals and noted that the bureaucracy has been taking up the pending appointments “lightly”. SC has been asking the Centre to make appointments in tribunals that are facing a severe crunch of presiding officers as well as judicial and technical members.

Taking up the matter with AG KK Venugopal when he appeared for another case, a bench headed by CJI N V Ramana said that after a few appointments made initially, nothing substantial happened. In its affidavit in September, the Centre had said that about 200 posts were vacant in various tribunals.

The Bombay high court last week pulled up the Union finance ministry over vacancies in DRAT and threatened to summon the finance secretary and responsible officers to appear before it. The court was informed that due to the posts being vacant, banks and financial institutions were unable to recover their dues from errant borrowers.