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Do you intend to close tribunals, Supreme Court asks Centre amid vacancies
Mehta, representing the Centre, sought to point out that some delay could also be attributed to a spate of cases pending before the Supreme Court on appointments, service conditions and tenure of the members of the tribunal.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Union government if it wants all tribunals wrapped up since they are unable to function even otherwise due to massive shortage of manpower, leaving people hapless.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, censured the Centre over huge vacancies in various tribunals across country, effectively crippling their functioning, despite several recommendations made for filling up vacancies in the last two years.
“Get instructions from the authorities whether they want to continue with the tribunal or shut them completely...You cannot keep people remedy less. If you don’t want tribunals, just tell us. We will entrust the jurisdiction to the concerned high courts. You cannot have tribunals but not fill up their vacancies,” the bench, which included justice Surya Kant, told solicitor general Tushar Mehta.
Mehta, representing the Centre, sought to point out that some delay could also be attributed to a spate of cases pending before the Supreme Court on appointments, service conditions and tenure of the members of the tribunal.
But the bench was not impressed with the submission. “Tribunals are creation of statutes and recommendations have been made by the selection committees absolutely in accordance with the statutes but you still haven’t appointed people. These selection committees have judges of this court and some of them made recommendations way back in 2019 but nothing happened,” it retorted.
The court told the S-G: “The concern is that we want to know it clearly from you whether you want the tribunals or you want to close them down. The impression that we gather is that the bureaucracy does not want tribunals at all. Just tell us and we will entrust their jurisdiction to the high court once again. It is a very sorry state of affairs.”
The bench was hearing petitions by advocate Amit Sahni and the State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh when it reproached the Union government for delay in filling up more than 200 vacancies across 15 tribunals in the country.
Sahni has demanded the constitution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) appellate tribunal which had not been set up even after 4 years of the GST Act being into existence.
“How many years back the GST Act came into force? And for 4 years, you have not been able to create an appellate tribunal. You passed an administrative order to increase the limitation period for filing appeals but you did not create an appellate tribunal,” the bench told Mehta while issuing a notice to the Centre on Sahni’s plea.
The MP bar council, on the other hand, challenged the transfer of the jurisdiction of Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Jabalpur to DRT, Lucknow due to the unavailability of a presiding officer at Jabalpur. While Mehta submitted that the Centre was willing to transfer the jurisdiction of DRT, Jabalpur to some other tribunal in the same city, the court rejected the suggestion calling it “pure adhocism.”
“Decide within a week and convey to us. We are very serious if you don’t do it, we will order the appearance of the top officers to give an explanation. Please don’t invite such a situation,” the bench told the S-G, listing the cases on August 16.
According to a list prepared by the court’s registry and read out by the CJI, tribunals across the country are awaiting appointments of 19 presiding officers and more than 100 members each on the judicial and technical side. These tribunals deal with cases of debt recovery, telecom dispute company law, consumer dispute, income tax, custom and service tax, environment protection, etc.
