Plea In Supreme Court Seeks Expeditious Filling Of Vacancies In Enforcement Department's Appellate Tribunal

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Apex Court for filling the vacancies in the Tribunal on a priority basis and in an expeditious manner.

“This Hon’ble Court in innumerous cases have held that Justice delayed is Justice denied but the ATPMLA, New Delhi, which deals with sensitive and crucial matters pertaining to Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Act. 1976 (SAFEMA), The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS), Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and The Prohibition Of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 (PBPT), is struggling to dispense justice particularly in absence of its Chairman and three members out of sanctioned strength of four and acute shortage of administrative staff.” The PIL said.

The Appellate Tribunal, Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been crying for attention since long but the Government has failed to take adequate and appropriate steps, the petitioner has stated.

Filed on behalf of Advocate Amit Sahni through Advocate Preeti Singh, the Plea states that in August 2019, many newspapers reported that the Government had cleared the name of Justice Sunil Gaur’s (Former Judge, Delhi High Court) to be appointed as a Chairman, ATPMLA, New Delhi after completion of incumbent Justice Manmohan Singh’s tenure in September 2019.

"But the said appointment was thereafter not notified and the post of chairman is lying vacant since then," he said.

The Tribunal is mandated to consist of a Chairman, who has to be a retired Judge of this Court or High Court and Four Members, who can be from the fields of Law, Finance and Management. But the Tribunal is constrained to function with its sole member and therefore sufficient number of matters cannot be taken up in absence of Presiding Officers.

Sahni had filed RTI Applications for seeking information regarding vacancies at the Tribunal, which revealed that apart from post of chairman, three out of four members are not appointed. Further there are certain vacancies since 2016 and few posts are vacant since 2008. He also made a representation to the Government for expeditious filling of vacancies at Tribunal but no step has been taken by the government upon the same till date.

“The very object for constituting Tribunals is to supplement the functions of the High Courts and the other Courts and to ensure that the consumer of justice gets speedy redressal to his grievances. Due to a large number of unfilled vacancies hampering the progress of the functioning of the Tribunal. Therefore there is imminent need for expediting the process of selections and appointments to ensure speedy justice,” the petition stated.