The Law Ministry on Thursday said that it was in the process of filling up seven vacant posts of law officers, out of a total strength of 25.
The law officers are entrusted with the responsibility of advising the Central government on legal matters referred to them and representing the government before the Supreme Court and High Court.
Staff crunch
“The Department will soon fill the vacant posts of Law Officers,” the Ministry said responding to recommendation of a Parliamentary Standing Committee to fill up the vacant posts.
The committee also cited a large number of vacancies existing in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) across the board.
“The committee fails to understand why no solution has been found to deal effectively with this problem even after so many years,” it said in a report tabled in the Parliament on Thursday.
Due to the vacancy, some of the Benches are not functioning regularly, resulting in increased pendency, the Committee remarked.
The Ministry replied that the government has taken pro-active remedial measures to lessen the shortage of manpower in the ITAT. The ministry said that it has invited applications for appointments of 21 Judicial Members and 16 Accountant Members in July last year.
Justice P.P. Bhatt, former judge of the Gujarat High Court, was appointed as the President of the ITAT and another seven Vice-President posts were also filled last year.
On the recommendation of the Department of Promotion Committee, 10 officials of the ITAT has been promoted to the post of Assistant Registrar, the Ministry noted.
The committee headed by headed by BJP lawmaker Bhupender Yadav asked the Ministry to undertake a comprehensive case analysis for the huge backlog of cases at ITAT.
It said the tribunal should truly live upto its moto of ‘ 'Nishpaksh Sulabh Satvar Nyay’ , which stand for impartial, easy and speedy justice.
International tax
The Ministry replied that a substantial portion of litigation before the ITAT relates to international tax issues which are complicated in nature, time-consuming and also have high stakes.
It said that the ITAT, Income-Tax Department and the ITAT Bar Association will meet to find ways to speed up disposal of cases.
