PM asks SC to introspect on efficacy of tribunals
7 April 2015 5:25 AM IST
He said senior judges of the Supreme Court can brainstorm to find out whether the tribunals are actually fast tracking justice delivery or are slowing it down. He made these remarks as most tribunals are headed by retired judges.
Addressing a joint conference of Chief Justices of High Court and Chief Ministers, Modi said the budget allocated to run the tribunals can be diverted to courts to strengthen them if it is found that they are not delivering results. He said it is necessary to find out whether tribunals are delivering justice or have become a “barrier” in the process of justice delivery.
Modi said there are some ministries which have four tribunals under their administrative control and the total number of tribunals in the country is now reaching 100. The Prime Minister referred to the role of tribunals while referring to the system of alternate dispute resolution system which is considered a tool to reduce pendency in courts. The Department of Legal Affairs in the Law Ministry had recently written to all Union ministries and departments to furnish details of tribunals functioning under their administrative control and explain the “possibility of merging the functions of tribunals with some other tribunals”.
The Law Ministry is of the view that there is a possibility that some of the tribunals can be “converged/ merged” to avoid “overlapping/identical functions” being discharged by them. There are over 35 tribunals functioning in the country dealing with subjects such as income tax, electricity, consumer protection, company laws and railway accidents.
Saying that country’s judiciary should be both powerful and perfect, the Prime Minister said, it is the only place that is trusted by the common people. Stressing on the need for quality manpower in judiciary, the Prime Minister asked the youth to become part of it.
The move by the government comes close on the heels of a proposal floated by the Water Resources Ministry some time back to amend the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, to scrap the five inter-state water dispute resolution tribunals and replace them with a single permanent tribunal.
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