Tribunal President- not a boss to the members! Who will judge the judges?
Can the President of the CESTAT who sits in the bench along with the members be a boss to the other members and write their Annual Confidential Reports? The answer is an emphatic NO according to the Madras High Court. The President is perhaps first among equals and certainly not a boss to the members. An aggrieved judge was before the Central Administrative Tribunal challenging certain very bad remarks made against him by the President of the Tribunal. The Tribunal held that the President had no power to write the confidential report of the Member. The government took the matter in writ to the Madras High Court and got the rapping.
The episode proves that judges are ordinary mortals like all of us and have the same prejudices and weaknesses. If protocol is not followed, it is not the exclusive privilege of the bureaucrat to sulk and react – judges seem to be not far behind.
The President of the CESTAT - an honourable retired High Court judge made some disparaging remarks about the mental faculty of a distinguished Member, in his confidential report.
Mentally seems abnormal
No control of himself
Loose talk makes him repulsive to the other Members
These are the remarks an honourable President is making against his brother Member. Sitting in the bench and listening to stupid banter throughout the day for all the days of your career is not an easy job and you have to call the most ignorant lawyer as “the learned counsel”. So learned is the Commissioner whose order you just declared as perverse! Life is really difficult for a judge.
The High Court declared that the President had no powers to write the confidential report of the members and has no supervisory role over the members. Maybe now the only power he is left with is transfer and this of course is a mighty power, sometimes more damaging than some angry confidential remarks.
Confidential remarks by superior officers are often used to punish not so pliant subordinates, when actually they were not meant to punish but to correct.
The Member must have lost promotion as a Vice president because of the damaging but illegal remarks of the President; will this lapse be rectified?
DDT was told of an incident where an Inspector in Mumbai was not promoted because his confidential report was not written. Why? The Superintendent who was to write his report was in jail in the Mumbai blast case. If the Superintendent is not available, the Assistant Commissioner can write the report but that worthy was keeping company with his Superintendent in the jail and so was the big boss the Additional Commissioner. The tragedy is that any of these officers whom the government found fit to be in jail could have spoiled the confidential report of the inspector and ruined his chance of a promotion!
Now that the High Court has declared that the President of the CESTAT has no power to write the CRs of the members, the same logic perhaps applies to other tribunals.
In a quick reaction to our story, a Chennai Advocate remarked, It is atrocious. How can there be a CR for a Judge.
See TIOL’s exclusive for more details.