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Slamming the Central Government against its failure in filling vacant posts of Presiding Officer/Chairman of Debt Recovery Tribunals and Appellate Tribunals, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India as to what is preventing the government from making these appointments.

The bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh even went on to remark that, "If the Government is unable to appoint competent persons as Presiding Officers/Chairmen in D.R.Ts./D.R.A.Ts., then it is better that this enactment is scrapped and the tribunals are abolished".

Dealing with two writ petitions against orders of the Debt Recovery Tribunal, Lucknow, the Court noted that for adjudicating the disputes for recovery, etc., of the loan advanced by the financial institutions, the  Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act, 1993, provides for setting up the tribunals and appellate tribunals creating a proper adjudicatory mechanism.

It, however, stressed that vacant posts in these tribunals are increasing the burden on the High Courts unnecessarily.

"It is unfortunate that after creating mechanism and adjudicatory forums, for several months and in some cases years, the posts of Presiding Officer/Chairman are kept vacant and the litigants have to come to this Court," the Court said. 

The Gomti Nagar, Lucknow branch of the Assets Recovery Management, Canara Bank had approached the High Court directly in writ jurisdiction against the DRT's order as the post of Presiding Officer/Chairman of Appellate Tribunal was lying vacant for more than 3 months.

Addressing petitioners' grievances, the High Court, apart from seeking response from the Central Government within a period of 2 weeks, directed the parties to the case to maintain the status quo in respect of the properties in question till the next date of listing of the petitions.

Recently, a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had passed an order on December 16, 2021, asking High Courts to take up cases filed under the SARFAESI Act in their writ jurisdictions. The top court had passed this order in light of many DRTs and DRATs being non-functional owing to non-filling of vacancies.

Cause Title: Canara Bank/Assets Recovery Mgmt.Branch,Lko.Thru.Chief Manager Ajeet Kumar Srivastava vs Debts Recovery Tribunal Lucknow & 2 Others and connected petitions