The Supreme Court on Wednesday suggested that the Union of India may contemplate forming an All-India Tribunals Service following the lead of the United Kingdom’s Her Majesty’s Tribunals Service, especially for administrative work in tribunals.
The bench of Justice D. Y. Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath suggested the formation of an All-India Tribunals Service with respect to the administrative work in the tribunals. The bench tendered an umbrella like allocation of services in the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal), NCDRC (National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission), DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) and other tribunals under other Central legislations.
The bench was hearing a plea regarding the strength of judges and the judicial infrastructure at the state and district level across the country, primarily.
Assistant Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, appearing on behalf of the Centre, submitted, judicial officers can be utilized for the purpose of judicial work with separate administrative background, if a separate cadre for registrars and other administrative officers can be created. Since most of the judicial officers are appointed on the posts of registrars and also to the other legal service authorities.
Justice Chandrachud observed that while agreeing with the issue to quite an extent, compared the different types of viewpoint on having a registrar general who is also a judicial officer and not have an administrative officer instead, which is very difficult.
A person, fully conversant with the law is required at the position, since the registrar general of a High Court has to deal with the district judiciary at all levels- Overseeing discipline; recruitment; and other duties have to be performed while maintaining proper confidentiality.
Justice Chandrachud noted that the judiciary cannot have a registrar coming from other cadre or other judicial academies. The registrar has to be a judge and not a district judge, ideally. While sharing his experience in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the Justice said that a district judge is picked up and appointed as the chairperson of the Judicial Academy. We need a judicial mind a judicial educator, he said.
The bench while paying attention to the continual demands of the tribunals noted that the tribunals, for example, the NCDRC does not have a cadre of its own. Officers from weights and measures departments and from other departments are allocated the posts, hence the judges heading these institutions have no control or discipline over them.