Need robust legislation to tackle all situations to secure justice for citizens: Bombay HC Chief Justice Dipankar Datta

Pune, November 19

Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta on Saturday asserted the need for a “robust” legislation to tackle all situations to achieve the preamble promise of securing justice for all citizens.

Justice Datta was speaking at a seminar on ‘Dispute Resolution Mechanism in Telecom, Broadcasting and Cyber-Sector issue, Approach and Way Forward’, organised by the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).

“Our (all information) everything is in the mobile phone and can be hacked by anybody, no privacy, nothing. So, this is the stage where we should explore whether instead of having one principal bench (TDSAT) at Delhi, with sittings permitted at six other places, why don’t we have regional benches in line with the National Green Tribunal,” Justice Datta said.

In an indirect reference to the Shraddha Walkar murder case, Justice Datta said, “We have just read in the newspapers about certain stories of ‘love in Mumbai, horror in Delhi’. These crimes are being committed because there is so much access to material on the internet. Now I am sure that the Government of India is thinking in the right direction. The Indian Telecommunication Bill is there.” “We require certain robust legislation to tackle all situations in order to achieve the goal of keeping our preamble promise of securing justice for all our citizens’ fraternity for retaining the dignity of individuals,” he said.

Speaking about the importance of tribunals, Justice Datta said there was no harm in constituting tribunals if they are appropriately manned and the purpose for which they have been set up as an alternative to the court to vender justice, is attained.

Although the TDSAT has full complement of its members, the same is not true for other tribunals in the country. In fact, the Bombay high court last year, had to push to ensure that all debt recovery appellate tribunals (DRTs) have chairmen, he said.

There are vacancies in the DRTs. The high courts were getting flooded with matters that ought to be taken up by the tribunals, Justice Datta said.

Supreme Court judge Justice Abhay Oka and TDSAT chairman Justice D N Patel were also present at the seminar.