Tribunals have become haven for retired judges & bureaucrats

Tribunals in the country should have experts in the respective fields as members, observed Supreme Court Judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.

“I have no hesitation in saying that it’s become a haven for retired bureaucrats and judges. Tribunals must be with specialists. For example, in Tax tribunals, you pick up specialists. Similarly, armed forces tribunals. There’s a balance between judges and armed forces tribunals. It, by and large, has worked. But we have so many tribunals today”, Justice Kaul said.

Justice Kaul also expressed concerns at statutory provisions providing first appeals from Tribunals to the Supreme Court. The lawyers, too, shared his concern.

“A statutory appeal against every tribunal comes to the Supreme Court. It will clog the Supreme Court. An electricity appeal comes to the Supreme Court!”, Rohatgi lamented.

“It should not be that way at all. Tribunal should not have first appeal to the Supreme Court”, another senior advocate agreed.

“Some matters from the specialised tribunals, when they reach the top court, a lot of time goes into it”, Justice Kaul said.

This interesting discussion came up while the bench comprising Justices Kaul and AS Oka was hearing an election petition on the recounting of votes in a 2016 election to the Radhapuram Assembly Constituency.

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi then spoke of an interesting topic – “Retired Judge Syndrome” -and how it must end.

“With all due respect, I think Retired Judge Syndrome must end. You have an electricity Tribunal, there’s a judge. He’s never dealt with an electricity case in his life. You go to TDSAT, the judge may not know much (in that area). It takes him a year to understand what it is”

The Bench along with the senior advocates also discussed issues on the limitation period.