[DRAT vacancy] “We read current budget is booster for economy; where is booster for judiciary?" Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Friday took exception to the post the chairperson of Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) lying vacant and asked the Central government to submit a note by next Thursday indicating the road map for filling up the vacancy..A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and MS Karnik said that it had in its earlier orders expressed dismay at the post lying vacant while remarking that it needs to know about the progress made. The Court also made a passing query as to how much attention the union budget made for judiciary."We read that the current budget is booster for economy, where is booster for judiciary?" the Bench demanded.The Court emphasised that DRAT is an important institution for a city like Mumbai which is the financial capital of the country."Please convey the concern of the court to the officer. If by next Thursday if we do not get a proper picture, we may have to think otherwise. On the one hand, we want to boost the economy and on the other hand we are not letting banks recover money," the Court remarked.This is the financial capital, commercial matters have to be taken into consideration, the Bench added.The Bench was miffed by the fact that the High Court was being forced to hear matters which should have been heard by DRAT as per the law. "We are doing the function of DRAT.. We are tired of the adjectives being used like “due diligence”.. What “due diligence” is being done," the Court asked. .The Court was hearing two writ petitions seeking a direction to be issued to the Central government to appoint a chairperson for DRAT in Mumbai. The Court had earlier passed suo motu directions to aid litigants who were left without appellate remedy, due to vacancies in DRAT rendering it non-functional..During the hearing today, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh representing the Central government, submitted that the matter is being pursued by the relevant authorities with due diligence and that he would be in a position to make a positive statement by three weeks."Either the names are cleared or not. There is nothing like “almost cleared”. We expressed our mind in December 2021, it has been 2 months since. We need a roadmap that this is what is done and this is what remains to be done," the Court said..The Court, therefore, asked the ASG to submit a road map by February 10, Thursday. It then proceeded to pass the following order:"We have perused our earlier orders, where in no uncertain terms we had expressed our concern and dismay at the manner in which the entire matter of appointment has been dealt with by the relevant department. We have no reason to disbelieve the statement made by ASG that in weeks he would be in a position to make a positive, but we need to know where the matter stands at present, what is the status, what steps are required to be taken for appointment of Chairperson of DRAT(M). The relevant department of Union to file a note by next Thursday indicating the roadmap for such appointment. We propose to pass further orders after looking into such note that may be placed before us. The interim order passed on December 2021, continued by January 14, is hereby extended and shall remain in operation till Feb 28, 2022, if not directed otherwise in the meanwhile.".Recently, the High Court was forced to pass interim orders in a dispute between the Kotak Mahindra bank and Yash Birla's son Nirvan Birla, due to the DRAT being non functional.