‘Apologise’: Supreme Court slams govt for seeking tribunal data

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the 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 Supreme Court expressed its surprise over the DRTs carrying out such an exercise.