HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court on Wednesday impleaded Union ministries of law & justice and the railways, seeking to know why they rendered the Railway Claims Tribunal in Secunderabad defunct by not appointing a judicial officer to preside over it.
Cautioning against non-appointment of judges to various tribunals and interfering in the administration of justice, the bench of justices A Rajasheker Reddy and T Vinod Kumar perused the contents of the Railway Claims Tribunal Advocates Association that highlighted the pathetic state of the tribunal, lying in a defunct state, because the quasi-judicial body does not have a vice-chairman-cum-judicial member to settle the claims for long.
“Earlier, civil courts were hearing such matters. But the Centre had brought in specialized tribunals for almost every subject. Now the civil courts are barred from hearing matters that fall under the purview of these tribunals. But the tribunals are lying in a defunct manner with no judges in them to hear the pleas,” the bench said.
Appearing for the Centre, assistant solicitor general, Namavarapu Rajeswara Rao, raised an objection over making the Union cabinet secretary a respondent in the case. The bench, while agreeing with ASG’s contention that the parties concerned are the ministries of law and railways, the court made both of them as parties.
But the bench minced no words to express its ire at the Centre.
“You are depriving the citizens of their right to justice. If you cannot make appointments, you better abolish the tribunals. The civil courts will deal with the issues,” the bench said while reminding the Centre’s counsel that the Supreme Court too recently expressed its anguish over a large number of defunct tribunals all over the country. “The chart shows huge vacancies of judicial members in various tribunals. You had set up tribunals. Now fill the posts in them,” the bench said and adjourned the case.
