Highlight the objectives that were sought to be achieved through tribunals. How successful have they been in mèeting them?
Answers
Tribunals are the quasi-judicial bodies established by an Act of Parliament or State Legislature under Article 323A or 323B to adjudicate disputes related to specified matters that are brought before it. Their jurisdiction is decided according to the statute establishing them. For example, Central Administrative Tribunal exercises jurisdiction in relation to the service matters of the parties covered by the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. Following are the objectives behind creation of tribunals :-
- Speedy justice and cost effectiveness :- The law courts with their elaborate legal procedures were deemed less efficient in rendering speedy and affordable justice to the parties concerned. Tribunals follow the principles of natural justice and thus expected to overcome the issue of delays and backlogs in the administration of justice.
- Domain knowledge :- Particularly in technical cases, it was felt that the nature of the statutes required adjudicatory forums comprising of persons having expert knowledge of the working of these laws.
To achieve aforesaid objectives, many tribunals have been established in India. They have been successful in the following ways :-
- Quick resolution :- The simple procedures in tribunal and the expertise in subject matter have enabled tribunals to decide the matters quickly and efficiently as compared to the courts. For example: NGT showing promptness in environmental issues.
- Affordable justice :- Increased efficiency of the tribunals has helped in reducing the expenses of seeking justice. As per the ‘Assessment of Statutory Frameworks of Tribunals in India’ report the disposal rate of the tribunals in comparison to the filing of cases per year is 94 percent which is remarkable.
- Reduced burden of courts :- Tribunals have been able to reduce the burden of the cases on the ordinary courts.
However, their working suffers from following issues :-
- At present, Indian tribunals are largely dependent on their respective sponsoring ministries for administrative support raising doubtś over their independence.
- Average pendency across tribunals is 3.8 years with 25% increase in the size of unresolved cases thus undermining the objectives of speedy justice. As per the Law commission report, the top five central tribunals in the country have a combined backlog of over 3.50 lakh cases.
- Many tribunals are suffering from a high number of vacancies defeating the very purpose for which these specialized forums were created.
- Due to scant geographic availability across the country, tribunals are also not as accessible as high courts. This makes justice expensive and difficult to access.
Tribunals have not been able to fully achieve the objectives for which they were created. Nonetheless, they have proved useful in easing the burden of ordinary courts. It becomes imperative to take various steps as suggested by various Law Commission reports and follow Tribunal Rules, 2020 to ensure that the objectives for which tribunals were created are achieved.
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