Lack of facilities at debt recovery tribunals irks Supreme Court

New Delhi: Pointing out poor infrastructure mechanism provided to debt recovery tribunals to recover loans due to banks to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, the Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a report  from the Centre whether the time frame fixed for the tribunals can be achieved.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud gave this direction while dealing with a PIL. It said the legislative changes to provide for expeditious disposal of proceedings before the debt recovery tribunals may not by themselves achieve the intended object so long as the infrastructure provided to the tribunals is not commensurate with the burden of the work and nature of judicial duties.

The bench said recently, the chairperson of the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal at Allahabad sent a letter to the Chief Justice of India recording that he was constrained to tender his resignation from the post of chairperson since, in the absence of infrastructure and facilities, the functioning of the adjudicating body over which he presided had become impossible. It noted that this is symptomatic of a trend whereby the debt page recovery tribunals and appellate tribunals suffer from a lack of adequate infrastructure, manpower and resources.

Having due regard to the important adjudicatory function, which is entrusted to these Tribunals, the efficacy of parliamentary legislation will depend in a large measure on the efficiency with which the tribunals discharge their duties.