NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over the mounting pendency in five Central tribunals, the Law Commission of India has recommended that orders of tribunals should not be challenged in the Supreme Court directly and instead should be challenged before the division bench of the respective High Court.
The tribunal is an administrative body established for the purpose of discharging quasi-judicial duties. It is neither a court nor an executive body.
Until July 2017, over 3.50 lakh cases were pending in the five tribunals among which the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal alone has more than 91,000 pending cases. In its report titled ‘Assessment of Statutory Frameworks of Tribunals in India’ submitted to the Law Ministry on Friday, the panel said, “Though the disposal rate of the tribunals in comparison to the filing of cases per year had been remarkable at 94 per cent, the pendency remains high.”
The law panel expressed surprise over the fact that though the tribunals were created to overcome delay and backlogs in the administration of justice in regular courts, now the pendency figures paint a dismal picture of the tribunals themselves.The panel has also recommended that tribunals be monitored by a single nodal agency under the control of the Ministry of Law and Justice.
Huge pendency
91,538 pending cases in the I-T Appellate Tribunal in end of 2016
90,592 cases in Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appeal Tribunal during the end of 2016
78,118 cases in Debt Recovery Tribunal as on July 3, 2016
45,604 cases in Railway Claims Tribunal as on Sept 30, 2016
44,333 cases in CAT in July 2017