- (1.) Heard learned Advocates appearing for the parties.
(2.) A very innocuous prayer has been made in this writ application seeking direction to learned Tribunal below to dispose of pending O.A. No. 1421 of 2011 (LRTT) as early as possible. We have heard learned Advocates for State and private respondents respectively. They have also no objection for expeditious hearing of original application. It is the further submission of learned Advocate, Ms. Dutta, appearing for the writ petitioner that the original application has been posted to the Third Bench, a non-functioning Bench as there is no Presiding Judge. Learned Advocate, Mr. De, Additional Government Pleader, however, submits that if any direction is passed for early disposal of original application by a Bench which is functioning now, it will cause difficulty to dispose of the case by learned Tribunal as at the present moment only two Benches of learned Tribunal are functioning due to the fact that there is no Judges to constitute other two Benches and First Bench which is now functioning, also will be non-functioning in view of retirement of Hon'ble Presiding Judge in January, 2012. We appreciate the problem as to be faced by learned Tribunal, but at the same time we cannot reject anxiety of litigants for expeditious hearing of their cases by Land Tribunal. There are so many cases pending before us where grievance made that their cases are pending for long time. In view of submission of learned Advocate for the State and particularly of Mr. De, it is clear that there is dearth of Hon'ble Judges to preside bench of tribunal and there are vacancies which require to be filled up immediately, otherwise litigants will be deprived of their right to access to justice, which is a human right and in certain situations which is considered as a fundamental right. Reliance is placed to the cases Tashi Delek Gaming Solutions Ltd. v. State of Karnataka, 2006 1 SCC 442 and Arunima Baruah v. U.O.I., 2007 6 SCC 120 which are referred in the case Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Shareholders Welfare Association (2) v. S.C. Sekar & Ors., 2009 2 SCC 784. Since at the present moment two Benches are functioning, the Chairman of learned Tribunal is directed to transfer the original application to one of such Benches where Presiding Judge is available for early disposal of the matter as expeditiously as possible. Before parting with the matter, we cannot restrain ourselves to express judicial anxiety that litigants are suffering due to vacancies of members of tribunal who will constitute bench to adjudicate matter.
(3.) The Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal accordingly is directed to bring this fact to the notice of Hon'ble the Chief Minister, Government of West Bengal to take appropriate steps in consultation with the Hon'ble the Chief Justice of High Court, Calcutta to fill up vacancies as early as possible. Recently as it is understood from the Bar that Central Government for Constitution of Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal has taken a policy decision to appoint learned Advocates experienced in the subject to hold the post of member of said Tribunal and already many Advocates have been appointed. It is suggested that said posting may be adopted by State Government also to solve the problem and it will help proper functioning of tribunal by younger persons than the retired Judges. We expect that there will be no dearth of members of learned Tribunal to constitute the four Benches and there will be proper functioning of that. Let this order be communicated to the Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal, Registrar General, High Court, Calcutta and learned Advocate General of State of West Bengal by High Court registry. The writ application is allowed to that extent. Let xerox plain copy of this order duly countersigned by the Assistant Registrar (Court) be given to learned Advocates appearing for the parties on usual undertaking.;