The central government and the Supreme Court are mulling conferring powers of tribunals upon district judges, reports ET..According to the report, a meeting was recently held wherein top officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministries of Finance and Law, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) were in attendance, along with two Supreme Court judges..The primary reason for considering the same is the lack of access to tribunals, which are either situated in one part of the country (as in the case of TDSAT) or one part of each state. In order to remedy this, it has been suggested that district judges who are easily accessible in terms of distance perform the functions of these tribunals..Moreover, it was submitted during the meeting that the pendency at tribunals was “insignificant” in comparison to the number of pending cases in courts. The minutes of the meeting state,.“Perusal of available pendency and disposal figures show that many tribunals are unnecessary as pendency is insignificant.”.Another point discussed at the meeting was the disciplinary control of heads of tribunals vis-à-vis the control exercised by judges..“Mechanism for disciplinary control and accountability at tribunals was inadequate compared to the disciplinary control and accountability of the judicial cadres subordinate to HCs.”.Therefore, it was reportedly suggested that tribunals should be amalgamated and/or manned by single-tier or multi-tier cadre of judicial officers, who in turn would be under the supervision of the high court..The report also states that the government and the Supreme Court are contemplating doing away with the appointment of retired personnel to tribunals..Over the years, the role of tribunals in India’s justice system has been widely criticised for their lack of independence and competence. To make matters worse, the recently passed Finance Act, 2017 calls for merging tribunals and covertly confers upon the central government the powers of selection, appointment and removal etc. of members. The same is being challenged in at least three high courts..And the purported move to confer judges with powers of these tribunals may not be the best idea either, given the pendency figures in district courts..Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, a longstanding critic of the tribunal system, recently called for an overhaul of the way things currently work. In this article, he suggests the formation of an Indian Tribunal Services, whose members may be deputed to specialized Tribunals. He also suggested that Judicial members can be treated as part of the quota for District Judges for further elevation to the High Courts.
