Union minister Jitendra Singh (File photo)
NEW DELHI: Union minister Jitendra Singh said Saturday that administrative members had to be allowed to head Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) benches as not many retired judges and senior judicial officers were keen to accept post-retirement assignments in the tribunal. Addressing the 10th All India Conference of CAT, Singh said the job offer was not attractive or they had more lucrative avenues at hand.”We can’t talk much about this because if we do then judges will get angry. If a common man gets angry, then the judge can reprimand him. But if a judge gets angry, no one can reprimand him,” he said.CJI BR Gavai said govt must improve the service condition of judicial and administrative members of CAT to attract more retired judges and judicial officers to take up the assignments.CAT comprises a chairman and members who can be drawn from the judicial field or administrative side, the latter usually being experienced public administrators.Ahead of his remarks on CAT administrative members being averse to ruling against govt, the CJI said, “nowadays one does not know how his statement would be portrayed in social media”. He was reflecting on his recent brush with the untamed communication medium’s portrayal of his remarks while dismissing a PIL seeking restoration of the decapitated idol of Lord Vishnu at Khajuraho. The CJI’s remark appeared to be a riposte to Singh who said though late Arun Jaitley was against making administrative members head the bench on the ground that they would not know how to write judgments, he was convinced by 2-3 senior bureaucrats that senior civil servants, after a service of 30-35 years, are well acquainted with service laws and can write judgments. “We brought an amendment allowing administrative members to head CAT benches,” the minister said.The CJI also said judges must exercise their powers with humility and responsibility. Referring to a two month-old incident of a young lawyer fainting in the courtroom after being rebuked by a Bombay HC judge, Justice Gavai said, “Due to conduct of some judges, there is discontent among lawyers. A young lawyer lost consciousness after being browbeaten by a HC judge. Lawyers and judges are equal partners in the justice delivery system and both need to collaborate for efficient functioning of the justice delivery mechanism.”CJI Gavai, law minister Arun Ram Meghwal, Singh and attorney general R Venkataramani were on the same page on rising litigation in CAT despite its 95% disposal rate. All three agreed that bureaucrats need not authorise appeal against every CAT judgment. The CJI suggested a screening mechanism through a nodal officer to eliminate unnecessary filing of appeals, to which both Meghwal and Singh agreed.Singh said the govt had fixed 40 indices for categorisation as ‘aspirational districts’, a concept which he said is being replicated in other countries.
