The Supreme Court on Monday criticized the finance ministry for asking Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) to gather data for the ministry, treating the judicial staff like subordinates. A Bench consisting of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih expressed its disapproval and demanded an explanation from the ministry for its actions.
“The ministry owes an explanation for calling upon DRTs to collect such huge data within such a short time. We are surprised to know that even DRTs were given the task of gathering information about the amount recovered based on their orders,” the Bench stated.
The court was particularly concerned about how the DRTs could have been expected to complete this task. “We wonder how this exercise could have been done by DRTs. Is DRT expected to have the data of the amount recovered? How will DRT know? What kind of data have you sought? How will DRT tell you how much amount a bank has recovered based on the orders?” Justice Oka asked.
This issue came to light during a case related to the lawyers’ strike at DRT Vishakhapatnam. The tribunal had informed the court that some cases were delayed because its staff was busy with data collection tasks mandated by the finance ministry. Shocked by this, the Supreme Court asked the ministry to file an affidavit by September 30 explaining its actions.
On Monday, the court reviewed the justification provided by the ministry through an affidavit filed by the Under Secretary of the finance department on October 17. The affidavit explained the ministry’s reasoning, but the court was not satisfied. It was revealed that all DRTs across the country had been asked to collect data on cases involving amounts over ₹100 crore, the number of new cases, and the amount recovered.
Justice Oka expressed further concern after learning that the ministry had sent an email to all DRTs on September 9, requesting this information to be provided within three days.
“You are treating judicial staff as if they are your subordinates. We expect an apology from the government. Such extent of collection of data is sought within 3 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,” Justice Oka said.
The ministry’s counsel defended the request, stating that the data was needed for a meeting with stakeholders to improve the system. However, the Bench was firm, saying that the ministry should have provided extra resources if they wanted such information.
“It’s good that the court’s attention has been drawn to this, otherwise this practice would have continued,” Justice Oka concluded.
