Lok Sabha approves bill to abolish tribunals
The idea is to abolish tribunals set up under various laws including the Cinematograph Act, the Copyrights, Act, the Customs Act, the Patents Act, the Airport Authority of India Act, the Trade Marks Act, the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act
Lok Sabha on Tuesday cleared the Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2021 seeking to replace an Ordinance brought out in April to abolish certain tribunals which according to the government have not helped in faster justice delivery.
The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on Monday after withdrawing a similar Bill pending in the House. The statute will be effective from 4 April, the day the Ordinance was brought out, according to the Bill.
The idea is to abolish tribunals set up under various laws including the Cinematograph Act, the Copyrights, Act, the Customs Act, the Patents Act, the Airport Authority of India Act, the Trade Marks Act, the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act.
All pending cases before such tribunals or authorities will be transferred to the commercial court or the High Court as necessary.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her statement explaining the objectives of the Bill that the government began rationalising tribunals in 2015. By the Finance Act, 2017, seven tribunals were abolished or merged based on functional similarity and their total number was reduced from 26 to 19.
The rationale followed in the first phase was to close down tribunals which were not necessary and merge tribunals with similar functions. In the second phase, analysis of data of the last three years has shown that tribunals in several sectors have not necessarily led to faster justice delivery and they are also at a considerable expense to the exchequer. Besides, the Supreme Court too had deprecated the practice of ‘tribunalisation of justice’ and filing of appeals directly from tribunals to the Supreme Court in many of its judgements, the statement said. “Therefore, further streamlining of tribunals was considered necessary as it would save considerable expense to the exchequer and at the same time, lead to speedy delivery of justice," the minister explained.
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