New Delhi, Dec 23 (IANS) The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has cleared the appointment of Presiding Officers in 11 Debts Recovery Tribunals (DRTs).
Following proposals of the Department of Financial Services, these persons have been appointed for a period of four years, or till attaining the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.
As per the notification of the Department of Personnel & Training, Chandrashekhar U and SV Gowramma will preside over Chennai’s DRT-2 and DRT-3, respectively, N Somasundaar Coimbatore will preside over DRT Coimbatore and T Rajesh will preside over Bengaluru’s DRT-2.
Jhamman Ram Chauhan will preside over Aurangabad’s DRT, Sreekala Suresh and Harish Kumar Kaushik will preside over Mumbai’s DRT-1 and DRT-2, respectively, Pankaj Kumar Upadhyay will preside over Ahmedabad’s DRT-2, Pravas Kumar Singh will preside over Lucknow’s DRT, Vimal Gupta will preside over Jaipur’s DRT and Vinod Kumar Srivastava will preside over Ranchi’s DRT, the notification added.
Last month, a bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar of the Supreme Court issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the Centre to fill vacancies in the DRTs across the country.
Asking the Central Government to respond within five weeks, the CJI-led Bench took note of the submission that the selection process commenced in September 2023 and thereafter, interviews were held in May 2024 and at present, 11 DRTs remain unmanned.
“The respondent (Union government) will file a counter affidavit within a period of five weeks from the date of service of notice. Rejoinder, if any, will be filed within three weeks from the date of service of counter-affidavit,” ordered the apex court on November 18.
The PIL said that out of 39 Debts Recovery Tribunals in the country, nearly one-third, i.e., 11 DRTs have vacancies, as of September 30, 2024.
Though as early as September last year, a circular showing that the above vacancies in the DRTs, would be arising in 2023-2024, was floated, to date, no appointment has been made, the petition said.
It added that no timely steps to commence the selection process for the anticipated vacancies are being taken and this delay would entail a situation where more DRTs will turn non-functional in future.
“While the primary and principal object of the constitution of the DRTs, as provided for in the preamble to the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act, 1993 (RDB Act) is ‘for expeditious adjudication and recovery of debts due to banks and financial institutions’, the said object gets defeated and frustrated in case the DRTs remain non-functional due to non-filling up of the post of Presiding Officers,” said the petition filed through advocate Sudarshan Rajan.
It further complained that instead of filling up the vacancies, the Centre resorted to giving additional charge of the vacant DRT to a DRT situated in a neighbouring state, causing practical difficulties to lawyers and decelerating the disposal of the other DRT as well.
The petition said that in view of the additional charge given to such DRT, only urgent matters are taken up and normal matters are not considered, thus increasing the case pendency. While the RDB Act provides a specific schedule ranging from 60 to 180 days, the petition added that many DRTs remain non-functional due to non-appointment of Presiding Officers beyond the specified time range.
The PIL sought direction to the Centre for taking necessary action on a war footing to fill up the vacancies in the DRTs across the country, saying that the failure to fill up the vacancies is a direct infringement upon constitutional as well as statutory provisions.
–IANS
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