Centre faces HC ire on allotment of new DRT office in Mumbai

Mumbai, Aug 13 (PTI) The Bombay High Court asked the Union Ministry of Finance today to ensure allotment of new premises for the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in the city after the existing office was shut following a fire.

A bench of justices AS Oka and RI Chagla said the government must not take an adversarial stand on the issue, and instead, work on eliminating any holdups that might be coming in the way of providing a new office space for the tribunal.

The bench also dismissed the argument made by the Union government counsel Rui Rodrigues that lack of funds was one of the reasons for the delay in providing a new space for the tribunal in the financial capital.

The DRT had been operating out of the Scindia House building in the Ballard Estate area in South Mumbai, but the premises was shutdown in June following a fire.

Since then, the tribunal has been functioning from a temporary space inside the Punjab National Bank office in Ballard Pier, also in South Mumbai.

The bar association of the tribunal approached the HC last month, seeking a direction to the Union government to allot appropriate space for the DRT's office.

The petitioners told the bench today that members of the DRT bar as well as the litigants approaching the DRT were not permitted to use the lift in the current building.

Instead, they were all expected to climb up to the fifth floor (where the temporary office is located) using an old spiral stair case.

Earlier, the Union government had informed the court it had identified office space in the MTNL building in South Mumbai and in the Mumbai Port Trust Area to house the DRT.

However, today, Rodrigues informed the bench that besides lack of funds, the delay in identifying and allotting a new office space for the DRT had been caused because some officers of the Finance Ministry had submitted that the HC had ruled out the allotment of the space in MTNL building.

The bench, however, noted that it had never made such an observation, or passed any orders against the allotment of space in the MTNL building.

"Who is this officer who is misreading the court's order? You are liable for contempt proceedings because of misreading our orders and for delaying the allotment," the bench warned.

It rapped the Union government for taking an "adversarial stand" on an issue that concerned the public.

"We can't believe this is the condition of the DRT. You (the Centre) expect litigants and the bar to climb up all the way using the spiral staircase?" the bench asked.

"We never expected that the Centre will take an adversarial stand on the issue.

"You must remember that there already exists an apex court judgement that says lack of funds cannot be expected as a valid argument by the government when it comes to providing infrastructure for courts and tribunals," the bench said. PTI AYA RSY RT RT