According to an order dated 4th February 2020 issued by Justice P. P. Bhatt, the Hon’ble President of the ITAT, 33 Members from across various Benches are stated to be attending the National Seminar at the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal.
The implied consequence of this is that several Benches of the ITAT may not function, or may function in multiple shifts, during the period that the Members are on tour.
ITAT has a backlog of nearly 90 thousand cases. 45 members are already vacant. Benches like Hyderabad, Pune are crawling due to shortage of members. Available members are looking for easy disposals like Covered matters, Bogus Purchases, Penalties, etc. as quality disposals need hard work & such tourism at public cost is organised over working weekdays not even weekends. In June 2019, J Bhat said before diwali, new members are joining.
At least make Fridays a regular day, all SA/MA etc can be listed before regular benches on regular days.