IMG agrees to slash number of tribunals from 36 to 18

Seeking to cut red tape, an inter-ministerial group of secretaries has "unanimously" agreed to reduce the number of tribunals from 36 to 18 as the government feels that most of these bodies are performing "identical functions".
Sources in the government said the inter-ministerial group will adopt its report to prune the number of tribunals in the coming days.
They said the decision to bring down the number of such bodies from the present 36 to 18 was taken "unanimously".
The Department of Legal Affairs in the Law ministry will be the nodal agency for administration of various tribunals. As of now, the tribunals are handled by various ministries.

The sources said the merger of tribunals will be implemented in a phased manner.
A Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had some years ago suggested bringing tribunals under administrative control of the Law Ministry.

The Department of Legal Affairs had recently written to all Union ministries and departments to furnish details of tribunals functioning under their administrative control and explain the "possibility of merging the functions of tribunals with some other tribunals".
The Law Ministry is of the view that there is a possibility that some of the tribunals can be "converged/ merged" to avoid "overlapping/identical functions" being discharged by them.

There are 36 tribunals functioning in the country dealing with subjects such as income tax, electricity, consumer protection, company laws and railway accidents.
Questioning the efficacy of tribunals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently voiced concern over the low rate of disposal of cases by them and said there was a need to ascertain whether these institutions were delivering justice or were acting as a "barrier" in it.
He had said senior judges of the Supreme Court can brainstorm to find out whether the tribunals are actually fast tracking justice delivery or are slowing it down. He made these remarks as most tribunals are headed by retired judges.

Addressing a joint conference of Chief Justices of High Court and Chief Ministers here in April last, Modi had said the budget allocated to run the tribunals can be diverted to courts to strengthen them if it is found that they are not delivering results.