The court asked the Registrar of the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal to file a status report indicating if any renovation work had been carried out in the courtrooms to "facilitate the conduct of meaningful proceedings". While hearing a case concerning grievances arising from the state of functioning of Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs), the Delhi High Court expressed concern over the “unfortunate physical state” of the courtrooms in the three DRTs in the national capital. After going through photos showing the condition of the courtrooms in these DRTs, a division bench of Justice Najmi Waziri and Justice Gaurang Kanth in its December 20 order observed: “the state of affairs shown in the photographs cannot be considered a forum’s conducive discharge of responsibility of adjudication by a Presiding Officer”. The bench said it was “more of a dump of files and records” from which retrieval of cases would not be an easy task. The court asked the Registrar of the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal to file a status report indicating if any renovation work had been carried out in the courtrooms to “facilitate the conduct of meaningful proceedings”. It said the report should address the issue of storage/disposal records of closed cases after they are digitised and the e-filing of cases. The court observed that this report was sought based on the photographs of the three DRTs in Delhi which showed “files and records stacked in courtrooms” taking up most of the space leaving making it difficult for lawyers and litigants to appear before a “functional Tribunal”. Advocate Sanjeev Bhandari, appointed as Amicus Curiae, informed the high court that 10 to 15 tribunals should be constituted and made functional in Delhi to address the pendency of cases as well as to adjudicate on the number of fresh cases filed daily. Bhandari submitted that this augmentation is especially necessary for the “time-bound disposal of matters”. Pursuant to this, the high court asked the Centre to look into the matter with respect to the issues and concerns raised by the court and litigants. Directing the Ministry of Finance to file a comprehensive affidavit, the HC said, “Let the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services look into the matter apropos the issues highlighted and the concerns of the court and litigants, with respect to i) the provision of courtrooms and facilities amenable for the efficient conduct of court proceedings; and ii) for augmentation of the number of Tribunals in the context of large pendency of cases and large quantum of monies lying locked in litigation. Let a comprehensive affidavit be filed by a Joint Secretary with prior approval of the Secretary of the said Department/Ministry”. In the previous hearing, the Delhi High court had noted that as on November 14, 11,942 cases involving a sum of Rs 401656 crore were pending before the three DRTs and the tribunals needed to be augmented to facilitate quicker disposal.