What is a Tribunal?

 

⚖️ What is a Tribunal?

A tribunal is a quasi-judicial body (meaning: it’s not a regular court, but it has some powers like a court) that is set up to adjudicate (decide) specific types of disputes.

Tribunals are usually created to:
✅ Reduce the burden on regular courts
✅ Provide specialized, faster, and more technical decisions
✅ Handle disputes in specific areas like tax, company law, environment, service matters, consumer disputes, etc.

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🏛 Key Features of Tribunals

• Created under a specific statute (Act), not under the regular court system

• Composed of judicial + technical members (for example, experts in tax, environment, company law)

• More informal procedures compared to regular courts

• Focused on speedy and specialized justice

• Appeals from tribunals often go to High Courts or Supreme Court depending on the law

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🔍 Examples of Tribunals in India

Area	Tribunal Name
Tax matters	Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT)
Company matters	National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), NCLAT (appeals)
Environmental matters	National Green Tribunal (NGT)
Service matters	Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT)
Consumer disputes	District, State, and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions (often called consumer forums, but function like tribunals)

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📜 Legal Basis

Article 323A and 323B of the Indian Constitution allow the Parliament to create tribunals for:

• Service matters (323A)

• Other matters like taxation, industrial disputes, land reforms, elections, etc. (323B)

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⚡ Tribunal vs. Court

Tribunal	Court
Created by statute	Part of constitutional judiciary
Limited to specific jurisdiction	General jurisdiction (civil/criminal)
Judges + technical members	Only judges
Simpler procedures	Strict procedural laws (CPC, CrPC, Evidence Act)
Appeals often limited	Full appeal hierarchy