WHAT ARE COURT AND WHAT ARE TRIBUNALS

 

Though both courts and tribunals exercise judicial power and discharge similar functions, there are certain well-recognised differences between courts and tribunals. They are:

(i) Courts are established by the State and are entrusted with the State's inherent judicial power for administration of justice in general. Tribunals are established under a statute to adjudicate upon disputes arising under the said statute, or disputes of a specified nature. Therefore, all courts are tribunals. But all tribunals are not courts.

(ii) Courts are exclusively manned by Judges. Tribunals can have a Judge as the sole member, or can have a combination of a judicial member and a technical member who is an expert in the field to which the tribunal relates. Some highly specialised fact-finding tribunals may have only technical members, but they are rare and are exceptions.

 (iii) While courts are governed by detailed statutory procedural rules, in particular the Code of Civil Procedure and the Evidence Act, requiring an elaborate procedure in decision making, tribunals generally regulate their own procedure applying the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure only where it is required, and without being restricted by the strict rules of it is required, and without being restricted by the strict rules of the Evidence Act.

Though both courts and tribunals exercise judicial power and discharge similar functions, there are certain well-recognised differences between courts and tribunals. They are:

 

 RECOMMENDATIONS BY COURTS ON AS TO-

 WHAT IS COURT

IN  CASE OF BHARAT BANK LTD. V. EMPLOYEES, 1950 SCR 459, this Court took the view that to be a court, the person or persons who constitute it, must be entrusted with judicial functions, that is, of deciding litigated questions according to law. This Court further observed that before a person or persons can be said to constitute a court, it must be held that they derive their powers from the State and are exercising the judicial powers of the State.

IN STATE OF BOMBAY V. NAROTTAMDAS JETHABHAI, 1951 SCR 51, this Court held that the word Court denoted a place where justice was judicially administered, having been vested the jurisdiction for this purpose by the State.

 

 IN THE CASE OF BRAJNANDAN SINHA V. JYOTI NARAIN, (1955) 2 SCR 955, it was held that in order to constitute a Court in the strict sense of the term, an essential condition is that the Court should have, apart from having some trappings of a judicial tribunal, power to give decision or a definitive judgment which has finality and authoritativeness which are the essential tests of a judicial pronouncement.

 THIS COURT, IN RAM NARAIN V. THE SIMLA BANKING AND INDUSTRIAL CO. LTD., AIR 1956 SC 614, held that a Tribunal which exercised jurisdiction for executing a decree would be a court for the purpose of the Banking Companies Act.

 While examining the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, a Constitution Bench of this Court IN BARADAKANTA MISHRA V. REGISTRAR OF ORISSA HIGH COURT, (1974) 1 SCC 374, observed:   court is an agency of the sovereign created by it directly or indirectly under its authority, consisting of one or more officers, established and maintained for the purposes of hearing and determining issues of law and fact regarding legal rights and alleged violations thereof

 IN STATE OF TAMIL NADU V. G.N. VENKATASWAMY, (1994) 5 SCC 314, this Court observed that the primary function of a Court was to adjudicate disputes, while holding that a Collector constitutes a Revenue Court within the meaning of Entry 11- A of the List III of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.. India, (1995) Supp 3 SCC 81,

WHAT IS A TRIBUNAL

TRIBUNALS  are special alternative institutional mechanisms, usually brought into existence by or under a statute to decide disputes arising with reference to that particular statute, or to determine controversies arising out of any administrative law. COURTS refer to civil courts, criminal courts and the High Courts.

TRIBUNALS can be either private tribunals (Arbitral Tribunals), or tribunals constituted under the Constitution (Speaker or the Chairman acting under Para 6(1) of the Tenth Schedule) or tribunals authorised by the Constitution (Administrative Tribunals under Article 323-A and tribunals for other matters under Article 323-B) or statutory tribunals which are created under a statute (Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Debt Recovery Tribunals and Consumer Fora).

Some TRIBUNALS are manned exclusively by Judicial Officers (Rent Tribunals, Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, Labour Courts and Industrial Tribunals). Other statutory tribunals have judicial and technical members (Administrative Tribunals, TDSAT, Competition Appellate Tribunal, Consumer Fora, Cyber Appellate Tribunal, etc.)

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