Telangana HC lambasts centre for not filling up vacancies in Secunderabad Railway Tribunal

A division bench of Justice Rajashekar Reddy and Justice Vinod Kumar directed the Law Ministry and the Railways to file affidavits by October 4. The bench said earlier people used to approach civil courts that the government is not filling up the posts. Now, the court said, the functioning of the judicial system is also getting hampered.

The bench was dealing with a PIL filed by the Railway Claims Tribunal advocates association. The association was represented by President K. Sudhakar. The association complained that the central government has not appointed vice-chairman and judicial members in the Railway Claims Tribunal for an unjustifiably long time.

The civil courts were not undertaking matters relating to tribunals since the latter was constituted for a specific purpose, the bench said.

The court said the central government should abolish the tribunals in the country if it was not interested in filling up vacancies. The court said several posts are lying vacant not only in the Railway Claims Tribunals but also in every other like the GST Tribunal.

"More than 50 percent posts are lying vacant. What is the problem in filling up the vacancies on time?" Justice Rajashekar Reddy asked the central government.

"You are not allowing people to approach the civil courts as tribunals have been constituted. If you are not helping the tribunals function properly, you better abolish these tribunals and allow civil courts to do the work. Let the people approach the civil courts. Neither are you filling up the vacancies nor allowing the people to get alternate legal remedies. This is causing a delay in justice dispensation," the bench said.