Bombay HC questions centre overlack of debt tribunals

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked the central government as to why it has not increased the number of Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRAT) in the state even when the number of recovery cases in Mumbai is the highest in India. The recovery cases worth is pegged at Rs 70,000 crore. The court directed the additional solicitor general (ASG) to take instructions from the Centre on setting up additional benches of the tribunal in place of the single bench that functioning regularly.

A division bench of justices A.A. Sayed and V.L. Achilya was hearing a writ petition. The petitioner complained that the DRAT in Mumbai was non-functional as a result of which it had to approach the DRAT in Chennai for appealing against orders issued by the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in Mumbai.

After hearing the petitioner, justice Achilya said, Maharashtra has the highest number of cases pending in the DRAT amounting to nearly Rs 70,000 crore. In such a case there should be more benches to hear the appeals,” said justice Achilya and asked for the ASG to be present.