What happened to new Benches of CESTAT?
ADDRESSING a meeting in Hyderabad on 8.6.2013, Justice Goda Raghuram, the CESTAT President said that the proposal to start a CESTAT Bench at Hyderabad is seven months pregnant but he was not sure of a safe delivery in nine months. [ - 10.06.2013]
In October 2013, the Union Cabinet had approved setting up of six additional benches of CESTAT. It is nearly one year after the cabinet approval and the new benches don't seem to be a nearby possibility.
DDT 2212 - 18.10.2013, commented:
The cabinet approval does not mean that the new Benches will start functioning from tomorrow - the most difficult job is to get Members for the Tribunal. We need 12 new Members (apart from the existing vacancies) - 6 Technical and six Judicial Members for the six Benches. Appointment of Judicial Members is a long drawn out process. As for Technical Members, it is very difficult to find willing and good Commissioner and above level officers from the department to become Technical Members in the Tribunal as there is tremendous drudgery in the job without commensurate perks .
As of now, it seems we need 16 new members and in the next one year, seven Members are to retire. So, that makes it 23 Members. Where and when are we going to get them?