Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: February 04, 2022 at 19:15 IST
The Bombay High Court has expressed deep distress on the vacant posts and directed the Central Government to submit the report or note by next Thursday with the plan to fill up the vacant posts.
The Court had also questioned regarding the Budget Booster for the Judiciary.
The Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik stated that,
“We read the current budget is booster for economy, where is the booster for judiciary?”
The Bench stressed that the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) is a crucial body or institution for the city like Mumbai, which is the financial capital of the nation.
The Bench asserted, “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 Bench was vexed with the Cases that the High Court had to consider on behalf of the DRAT as per the law.
The Court was considering two Writ Petitions requesting for the Order to be issued to the Union Government to appoint the chairperson of the DRAT in Mumbai.
The Court had primarily had issued suo motu Orders to assist Litigants who did not receive any Appellate remedy dur to the vacancies in the DRAT, leaving it non – functional.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh, appearing for the Central Government, informed the Court during the hearing that the issue is being considered by the concerned Authorities with “due diligence” and he would be able to respond positively on this matter by 3 weeks.
The Bench contended, “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 High Court therefore directed the ASG to submit the roadmap by February 10, 2022.
The High Court was recently forced to pass the interim Orders in the disputes going on between the Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yash Birla’s son Nirvan Birla due to DRAT’s inoperativeness.