Disparaging Remarks against President
AT least one Technical Member is known to have passed certain insinuating and disparaging remarks against the President and a Member. See what a Technical Member wrote in this order in his chaste and uncompromising language:
A perusal of the appeals and applications purporting to be under Section 151 of C.P.C. addressed to the then President brother Fauja Singh Gill (Justice Gill was the First President of the CEGAT as the Tribunal was then known as - DDT) for expediting the hearing of the appeals reveal that they breathe of confident optimism in retrieving substantially if not fully the losses sustained through the fines.
After making repeated applications dated 5-3-1985, 8-5-1985, 30-7-1985, 2-8-1985 and 4-10-1985 to the President, the appellants finally succeeded in getting their appeals posted before the North Regional Bench of the Tribunal consisting of brothers Fauja Singh Gill and Devki Nandan Lal, even though this was just before brother Fauja Singh was to demit the office on completion of his tenure. It is also seen from the records of the cases that he agreed to take up these two appeals in preference to others for reasons best known to him. However, the S.D.R. objected to the jurisdiction of the North Regional Bench to hear the appeals, and after hearing the matters for two days on 4-11-1985 and 5-11-1985, the SDR's objection was upheld, and the appeals were transferred to the West Regional Bench, after finding fault with the Registry that it did not send these two appeals to the West Regional Bench, but unfortunately kept them in New Delhi and listed for hearing.
At best, this observation can be described as an illustration of amnesia on account of advancing age as each of the applications made from time to time was specifically put to the President and the request for early hearing was deliberately deferred.
With much regrets, therefore, it is not possible to be persuaded to accept the findings of brothers Fauja Singh Gill and Devaki Nandan Lal that the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi had condoned the delay in presentation of these appeals to the Tribunal.
Brother Fauja Singh Gill recorded the said findings perhaps while reminiscing of the days when he adorned the bench of the same Delhi High Court.
He was approaching the Biblical span of life of three score and ten years and such an aberration on his part is pardonable in those circumstances.
As regards the concurrence of brother Lal, it has to be taken as a true expression of the customary Indian tradition of showing respect to the elder brother.
However, the call of conscientious duty drags this Bench elsewhere from the path of giving blind respect of the elders.
The Judicial Member sitting with him was perhaps aghast and noted in his order, “I disassociate myself with the insinuations and disparaging remarks made against the former President of the Tribunal and the Hon'ble Member Shri D.N. Lal.”
The case was referred to a three Member Bench and the Larger Bench also while disposing of the matter noted, “ We would also like to place on record that we totally dissociate ourselves with the insinuations and disparaging remarks made by Member (Technical), WRB in his order against the former President of the Tribunal and (ex) Member Shri D.N. Lal .“
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Fortunately nothing of the sort happened again in the last thirty years.