The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Union Finance Ministry
for seeking data from the Debts Recovery Tribunals (DRT) over the amount
recovered on the basis of the tribunals' orders and sought an explanation.
A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George
Masih said the ministry could not treat the judicial staff of the DRTs as its
subordinates and owed an explanation for calling upon the tribunals to collect
such huge data within a short time.
"You are treating
the judicial staff as if they are your subordinates. We expect an apology from
the government. Such extent of collection of data is sought within three days.
If you want data to be collected, additional staff as required by DRT should be
provided. This will not be tolerated. Some of them are judicial officers you
are treating them as subordinates," the bench said.
The top court expressed its surprise over the DRTs carrying out
such an exercise.
"The secretary of the department concerned shall look into
the entire thing after going through the orders of this court and other
material on record and ensure that a proper affidavit is filed," the bench
said.
On September 30, the top court had issued a notice to the
section officer, Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services, to
appear before it and explain how the DRTs could be treated as a Central
government department.
The apex court was
hearing a plea challenging the adjournment of an application pending before the
tribunal due to a lawyers' strike.
The court had issued a
contempt notice against the Vishakhapatnam Bar Association for abstaining from
court work, leading to the non-functioning of the DRT.