Central government appoints Presiding Officers to 11 DRTs

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on December 20 cleared the appointment of eleven persons as Presiding Officers of various Debts Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) ..They have been appointed for a tenure of four years or until the age of 70, whichever is earlier.Below are the appointments city-wise:ChennaiDRT-2: Chandrashekhar U - former District Judge and Senior Faculty Member at the Karnataa Judicial Academy.DRT-3: SV Gowramma - advocate and former Presiding Officer of DRT-2, Bengaluru.CoimbatoreDRT: N Somasundaar - advocate and former Presiding Officer of DRT-1, Ernakulam.BengaluruDRT-2: T Rajesh - advocate and former Presiding Officer of DRT-2, Chennai.AurangabadDRT: Jhamman Ram Chauhan - a former District and Sessions Judge from the Haryana Superior Judicial Service.MumbaiDRT-1: Sreekala Suresh - former Judge of the Family Court under the Kerala High Court’s Judicial Department.DRT-2: Harish Kumar Kaushik - former Principal Judge of the Family Court in Madhya Pradesh.AhmedabadDRT-2: Pankaj Kumar Upadhyay - former Additional District Judge from the Uttar Pradesh Higher Judicial Service.LucknowDRT: Pravas Kumar Singh - former Principal District Judge from the Jharkhand Superior Judicial Service.JaipurDRT: Vimal Gupta - advocate and former Presiding Officer of DRT, Aurangabad.RanchiDRT: Vinod Kumar Srivastava - former District Judge from the Uttar Pradesh Higher Judicial Service..In addition to this, the committee also extended additional charge arrangements for eight DRTs across the country for a further six months or until regular appointees assume charge. For instance, AS Jayachandra, the Presiding Officer of DRT-1 in Chennai will also handle DRT-3 in Chennai. Similarly, Murumkar Dilip Ganpatrao, the Presiding Officer of Pune DRT will oversee DRT-2 in Mumbai and DRT in Aurangabad..Constituted over 30 years ago, DRTs have the power to adjudicate proceedings under Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institution Act (RDDBFI) 1993 and Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002. However, the tribunal has come under criticism in the recent past owing to lack of members and slow rate of disposal of cases..Incidentally, in November this, the Supreme Court sought a response from the Union government regarding the non-appointment of chairpersons in 11 Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) across the country..In 2021, the Supreme Court had even asked High Courts to entertain applications that are filed before these fora as a stop-gap measure in view of the lack of personnel at the DRTs and the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT)."For the time being, we request the High Courts entertain the applications which they have to file before DRT, DRAT under Article 226...Once Tribunal is constituted, the matters can be relegated back to the Tribunal," the top court had said in its December 2021 order.In 2022, the Kerala High Court joined in calling out the Central government for its inaction in filling up vacancies at various tribunals, causing irreparable hardship to litigants.[Read Notification]