Inter-dept disputes should be resolved by govt, not courts: SC

Inter-dept disputes should be resolved by govt, not courts: SC

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  08.09.2021

As disputes between government departments always end up in courts, the Supreme Court on Tuesday raised question on why the Centre is reluctant to intervene to sort them out instead of depending on court to adjudicate the dispute.

While hearing a legal battle between Registrar General & Census Commission and LIC, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh said that some kind of mechanism should be put in place by the government to resolve such disputes and court should not be burdened with such cases.

The court said that there are many such cases being filed in courts including disputes between public sector units and tax department. “I have not found government taking a stand to sort out such problems and they always want court to sort out the problems,” the SC said. The SC was hearing an appeal filed by Census Commission challenging Gujarat HC verdict holding that services of LIC employee could not be asked for census work by the commission.

The HC had quashed the order passed by commission requisitioning the staff of LIC and held that the corporation was not a local authority within Census Act.