RAS question
The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 abolished which of the following tribunals?
Correct answer: (C) Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.
The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 abolished the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal by removing the Appellate Tribunal under the Cinematograph Act, 1952 and shifting the appeal route to the High Court.
Explanation
The answer is the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal. The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 amended the Cinematograph Act, 1952 by omitting the definition linked to the Tribunal, substituting “High Court” for “Tribunal” in the appeal provisions, and omitting sections that dealt with the Tribunal. Its Second Schedule also names the “Appellate Tribunal under Cinematograph Act, 1952” among the bodies covered by the transitional provisions. Those provisions say pending appeals, applications or proceedings before such tribunals would stand transferred to the court where they would have been filed if the Act had already been in force. This is why the FCAT, not the continuing tribunals in the other options, is the abolished body.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The National Green Tribunal is not named in the Act’s Second Schedule of abolished bodies and it continued to function.
- (B) The Central Administrative Tribunal was not among the bodies abolished by this Act and continued to function.
- (D) The Armed Forces Tribunal is not identified in the Act’s abolition schedule and was not abolished by the Act.
Concept
This tests tribunal reforms under Indian polity, especially how Parliament rationalised appellate forums by transferring work to High Courts or other existing bodies. It recurs in RAS because governance questions often ask which institutions were actually altered, abolished or left untouched by a reform law.