The Challenges of Tribunalization in India

What is a Tribunal?

Tribunals: A Solution That Hasn’t Delivered

• Purpose: Tribunals were set up to ease the burden on courts, offering faster, specialized adjudication.
• Reality: Many have become inefficient and slow, mirroring the very problems they aimed to resolve.

Key Challenges Across Tribunals

A. Overburdened & Inefficient Tribunals

• National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)
  • Overloaded after merging with the Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPAT) in 2017.
  • Handles Companies Act, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, and Competition Law cases—leading to delays.
  • Result: Slower case resolution, loss of competition law specialization.
• Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT)
  • Created to expedite loan recoveries but now has 215,431 pending cases.
  • Recovery rates fell to just 9.2% (2022-23), undermining its purpose.
• Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL)
  • Struggles with vacancies, delaying key regulatory reforms in the power sector.

B. Judicial Intervention: Undermining Tribunal Authority

• Supreme Court Overruling Tribunals
  • Example: The AGR case (TDSAT ruling overturned by SC), affecting the telecom industry.
  • Impact: Tribunals lose credibility if major rulings are routinely challenged and overturned.

C. Economic & Legal Ramifications

• Delays create regulatory uncertainty, discouraging investment and affecting industries like finance, energy, and telecom.
• Merging tribunals with courts hasn’t improved efficiency—it adds more cases to an already burdened judiciary.

Core Issues Behind Tribunal Inefficiency

A. Poor Selection & Lack of Infrastructure

• Retired judges and bureaucrats dominate tribunals, raising concerns about:
  • Lack of technical expertise in specialized areas.
  • Post-retirement placements that may lack accountability.

B. Lack of Structural Oversight

• No central regulatory authority to streamline tribunal functioning.
• Law Commission (272nd Report, 2017) suggested a central nodal agency, but it hasn’t been implemented.

C. Appeal System Undermines Finality

• High Courts & Supreme Court frequently override tribunal decisions, leading to:
  • Increased judicial workload (e.g., CAT cases appealed under Articles 226/227).
  • Reduced tribunal effectiveness and longer case timelines.

Potential Reforms & Solutions

A. Strengthening Tribunal Autonomy

• Implement SC recommendations from L. Chandra Kumar (1997) for an independent oversight authority.
• Set up a National Administrative Appellate Tribunal to handle CAT & SAT appeals, reducing HC workload.

B. Improving Efficiency & Reducing Backlogs

• Double-shift working hours (discussed in 2011 but never implemented).
• Better case management systems & digitalization to streamline dispute resolution.

C. Overhauling Appointment Process

• Inclusion of domain experts, not just retired judges and bureaucrats.
• Merit-based selection to ensure technical expertise.

D. Addressing Government Apathy

• The government must prioritize tribunal reforms to ensure they serve their intended purpose rather than becoming a burden.

Tribunals were meant to fast-track justice, but inefficiency, poor oversight, and excessive judicial intervention have made them part of the problem