Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Nov 12: The High Court has closed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking creation of a Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRT) in UTs of J&K and Ladakh citing that the matter is sub-judice before the apex court.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Rajnesh Oswal has closed the PIL as it has been brought to the notice of the court during proceedings of the matter that the Apex Court is already seized of the matter on the same subject in Special Leave to Appeal (SLP) in which the next date has been fixed for 9th December.
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“Since the Supreme Court is already dealing with the aforementioned identical matter, as such, we deem it appropriate to close the PIL at this stage. Ordered accordingly”, DB concluded. The issue of absence of DRT in both UTs was raised in the PIL and assignment of all cases to the Debts Recovery Tribunal in Chandigarh was questioned as it was pleaded that since Debts Recovery Tribunal, Chandigarh is not easily accessible, it amounts to denial of fundamental right of access to justice.
It was contended in the PIL that access to justice is a part of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which is a fundamental right as such, to effectuate the said right, the State must provide an effective adjudicatory mechanism and the mechanism so provided must be reasonably accessible in terms of distance and the litigant’s access to the adjudicatory process must be affordable.
“…Since the Debts Recovery Tribunal has already been established in Chandigarh, nothing prevents the Central Government from authorizing a Presiding Officer of any of the Tribunals functioning in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise the powers to discharge the functions of Presiding Officer of Debts Recovery Tribunal under the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act”, read the PIL
With these views the court had suggested that the authorities can examine the issue especially considering the availability of Tribunals functioning in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
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