The Government is exploring the possibility of bringing in different tribunals under administrative control of one ministry for better administration, a top official said on Monoday.
law Secretary PK Malhotra said the Government has constituted several appellate tribunals in many areas including indirect taxes, central administrative tribunal and debt recovery tribunal and “a time has come to review whether functions of these tribunals can be clubbed together and put under the administrative control of one ministry for better administration.” He was speaking at the platinum jubilee celebrations of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) here.
A constitution bench, the secretary said, had suggested the Government to think about bringing tribunals under administrative control of the Ministry of law and Justice. He said that the “Government is working in that direction (bringing tribunals under one ministry) and we are likely to come up with concrete proposals in this regard.”
last year, the law Ministry had issued reminders to all central ministries and departments to give details of the number of tribunals working under them. It had also sought a response on how many of them can be merged to bring down their number.