The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its displeasure on the Center for not filling up varied vacancies in tribunals throughout the nation, calling it a “sorry situation”.
Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, main a two-judge bench, mentioned vacancies of 20 presiding officers, 110 judicial members and 111 technical members are pending in varied tribunals throughout the nation. He informed Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, “We don’t know what the stand is because you want to continue with the tribunal or close it.”
The bench, additionally comprising Justice Surya Kant, requested the Center to take a stand in per week, “if not then we will call all top officials across the country to appear before us”.
The court docket was listening to petitions towards the central notification transferring the jurisdiction of Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Jabalpur to DRT, Lucknow as the previous has no presiding officer, and the second looking for organising of Goods and Services Appellate Tribunal. Has been doing.
The CJI mentioned the court docket “provided certain information about 15 tribunals that do not have a chairperson or a member. There are tribunals where there are vacancies of presiding officers. The Telecom Disputes Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has none.” The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) additionally has judicial and administrative vacancies.
The SG concurred with the court docket on the difficulty of DRT Jabalpur jurisdiction and mentioned that if there isn’t a tribunal in an space, it can’t be assigned to every other tribunal situated elsewhere. He mentioned Lucknow was urged in error however was real. Mehta cited pendency of some circumstances as the rationale for non-appointment to the Tribunal.
But the CJI mentioned, “We have our own suspicion that some lobbies are working to not fill these vacancies.”
Justice Surya Kant mentioned, “You cannot close the tribunal… If you want it to continue, fill up the vacant posts.”
Responding to the court docket’s assertion that if the Center doesn’t take a stand inside per week’s time, it is going to summon officers, Mehta mentioned “it will not be required” and sought 10 days’ time.
Allowing the request, the court docket fastened August 16 for additional listening to of the matter.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
