All litigation before tribunals with vacancies should be stayed till govt appoints members: Supreme Court remarks

The Supreme Court on Thursday took exception to the vacancies in tribunals across the country and the failure of the Central government in filling up the same..A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh even remarked that the top court should consider staying all pending litigation before tribunals which have vacancies."Unless government wakes up and appoints members to tribunals, I feel the Court should stay all litigation under all legislation where members of tribunal have not been appointed," remarked Justice Kaul."Why establish tribunals (and) then give jurisdiction to High Courts?" Justice Sundresh weighed in..The remarks came after vacancies in the tribunal hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were pointed out to the Court.The Court was hearing a case relating to Heera Gold case, in deposits worth ₹5,600 were collected. The company is alleged to have then duped the investors after luring them to invest the amount in gold-saving schemes.An intervenor, a third party represented by Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave whose property had been attached by the Enforcement Directorate so as to pay out defrauded investors, approached the Court today. Dave submitted that his appeal was pending before the PMLA appellate tribunal.The Court adjourned the matter after Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said that he will take instructions. .During one of the earlier hearings, Justice Kaul had expressed his disapproval at duped investors in the Heera Gold case sending WhatsApp messages to groups of which he is a part.The judge said that some people are sneaking into WhatsApp groups of which he is a member, and are sending messages seeking "justice"."I don't want to receive WhatsApp messages concerning the case. Some one sneaks into my groups and leaves messages. We don't want to get into all of this," Justice Kaul had said.

All litigation before tribunals with vacancies should be stayed till govt appoints members: Supreme Court remarks

Debayan Roy

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