Nagpur, Aug 7 The Bombay High Court has recommended to the Union government to immediately remove Pankaj Kumar, Presiding Officer of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Nagpur, noting that he lacked the basic knowledge of law.
In an order passed on Thursday, a bench of Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode said Kumar, despite being a senior judicial officer, lacked even the basic knowledge of legal jurisprudence and basic concepts of legal proceedings.
The order came on a plea filed by Pushpa Deshmukh through Advocate Yash Bhumare which claimed that the tribunal did not hear her application despite a High Court order.
After Deshmukh moved the court, the judges issued a show-cause notice to Kumar and ordered him to appear before it, noting that he had committed wilful and deliberate disobedience of its order.
"After interacting with the respondent (Kumar), we find that he is not at all aware as to what is the essence of a presiding officer of a judicial or quasi-judicial tribunal. We also found him to be biased against borrowers," the HC said.
Kumar believed that since borrowers did not pay amounts due to the banks, they did not deserve any relief, the court noted.
It added that Kumar kept applications filed by borrowers pending without assigning proper reasons, forcing them to approach the high court.
In one case, despite the HC ordering the DRT to decide a matter within six months, Kumar adjourned hearing for seven months, the judges said.
After interacting with Kumar it was satisfied that he did not deserve to continue as Presiding Officer of the Debt Recovery Tribunal "even for a single day", the HC said.
"We have also realised that holding him guilty and punishing him for contempt would not resolve the issue....Accordingly, we dispose of the present contempt petition with a recommendation to the Union of India to remove Pankaj Kumar from the post...," the High Court said.
If, for any reasons, it is not possible to remove him, the Union government shall immediately transfer him from the post, it added.
The court ordered the government to submit a compliance report on September 4.
Advocate Atul Pande, former president of the DRT Bar Associaition, said the order would bring relief to litigants.
"Matters were not decided in a timely manner and not properly adjudicated on merits. Litigants as well as the lawyers were fed up," Pande said.
