Apex court pushes for umbrella body of all tribunals

COURT SUGGESTED THAT A THREEMEMBER PANEL BE CONSTITUTED TO LOOK INTO ISSUES RELATED TO SETTING UP OF NATIONAL TRIBUNAL COMMISSION

CHANDIGARH:THE Supreme Court (SC) has ‘broadly approved’ the idea of constituting a National Tribunal Commission (NTC), an autonomous oversight body for all the tribunals in the country.

The SC bench of justice AK Goel and justice Indu Malhotra also suggested that tribunals should be manned by a regular cadre with a longer tenure instead of retired judges and officers. It also called for abrogation of direct appeals to the apex court against tribunal orders.

The SC was considering a special leave petition against the Kerala High Court judgment in SARFAESI Act. Jurists have since long deprecated tribunalisation in India, especially their functioning under the executive and ministries against which the tribunals have to pass orders.

The court suggested that a three-member committee be constituted to look into issues related to setting up of NTC. As per SC order, the committee may look into issues such as creation of a regular cadres laying down eligibility for recruitment for tribunals; setting up of an autonomous oversight body for recruitment and overseeing the performance and discipline of the members; amending the scheme of direct appeals to Supreme Court so that the orders of tribunals are subject to jurisdiction of high courts and making benches of tribunals accessible to common man at convenient locations instead of having only one location at Delhi or elsewhere.

The SC bench also said that the members should also be eligible for appointment as high court judges.

The members can be drawn either from the serving officers in higher judicial service or directly recruited with appropriate qualifications by national competition. Their performance and functioning must be reviewed by an independent body, the SC bench said.

The SC suggested that one of the members of the committee could be a retired judge of Supreme Court, who served in a tribunal.

The NTC should oversee functioning of central tribunals and similar body may be constituted for state tribunals, the SC bench observed. The matter will be taken up for further deliberations on May 10.