The Hindu : New Delhi News : Debts Recovery Tribunal gets ISO-9001 certification

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Debts Recovery Tribunal gets ISO-9001 certification

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, AUG. 10. For the first time in judicial history, a Debts Recovery Tribunal, a quasi-judicial forum, has been awarded ISO-9001 certification here for adhering to quality standards and disposing of cases relating to recovery of outstanding dues to banks and financial institutions.

The recipient of this prestigious award from Justice A.R. Lakshmanan, Judge of the Supreme Court, was the presiding officer of Hyderabad DRT, T. Ravi Shankar. It became the first Tribunal in the country to get this certification. As on July 31, this DRT had recovered dues to the banks and financial institutions to the tune of Rs. 963 crores. The total outstanding amount due to banks is about Rs. 90,000 crores.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Justice Lakshmanan lauded the efforts of DRT Hyderabad for bagging this certification, which would enable it to discharge its functions more efficiently, and expeditiously in a transparent manner. He said such certification for a judicial forum would go a long way in ensuring quality standards in the justice delivery system and urged other DRTs to emulate DRT Hyderabad.

Mr. Ravi Shankar said in compliance with ISO requirements, the Tribunal had framed its quality policy, values and objectives. One of the objectives was to recover a sum of Rs. 200 crores in 2004-2005 and Rs. 300 crores in 2006-2007. He said the ISO certification also required that cases had to be disposed of speedily.

The Joint Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry, P.M. Sirajuddin, said that the DRTs provided for expeditious adjudication and recovery of debts due to banks and at present 29 DRTs were functioning all over the country and there were five appellate tribunals.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi