Tribunals Have Become Haven For Retired Judges & Bureaucrats;They Must Have Specialists As Members : Supreme Court Judge

"I have no hesitation in saying, there's a saying that it's become a haven for retired bureaucrats and judges. Tribunals must be with specialists. For eg. in Tax tribunals, you pick up specialists. Similarly, armed forces tribunals. There's a balance between judges and armed forces tribunals. It, by and large, has worked. But we have so many tribunals today", Justice Kaul said.

Income tax Tribunals and CESTAT work the best, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi said. Justice Kaul also expressed concerns at statutory provisions providing first appeals from Tribunals to the Supreme Court. The lawyers, too, shared his concern.

"A statutory appeal against every tribunal comes to the Supreme Court. It will clog the Supreme Court. An electricity appeal comes to the Supreme Court!", Rohatgi lamented.

"It should not be that way at all. Tribunal should not have first appeal to the Supreme Court", another senior advocate agreed.

"Some matters from the specialised tribunals, when they reach the top court, a lot of time goes into it”, Justice Kaul said.

This interesting discussion came alive while the bench comprising Justices Kaul and AS Oka was hearing an election petition on the recounting of votes in a 2016 election to the Radhapuram Assembly Constituency. The plea was moved by an ex-MLA Inbadurai. The matter was adjourned for detailed hearing on a later date.

Rohatgi then spoke of a rather interesting topic - "Retired Judge Syndrome" -and how it must end.

"With all due respect, I think Retired Judge Syndrome must end. You have an electricity Tribunal, there's a judge. He's never dealt with an electricity case in his life. You go to TDSAT, the judge may not know much (in that area). It takes him a year to understand what it is"

The Bench along with the senior advocates also discussed issues on the limitation period.

The limitation of 6 months (in the present case) must be taken seriously, Senior Advocate P Wilson said.

This was Justice Kaul's reply:

"If I may say so, limitation within however time has to be taken seriously. So many statutes provide for limitation. When these are the volumes, either you have specialised forums or tribunals. When the forums are made, they are not manned. People are not appointed to those forums…..May be there are can be specialised election tribunals manned by retired judges who will take them up and do so. But if I am to say so, by the time tribunals are appointed, members will not be appointed... Some out-of-the-box thinking is necessary. You can't decide so many cases even if you double or triple the strength".

Case Title: I.S. Inbadurai vs Appavu | CA No. 1055/2022