The Supreme Court on Monday termed as a “serious issue” the passage of the Bill with the provisions of the Tribunal, which was struck down without any debate in Parliament. The court had given the Center 10 days to make appointments to the quasi-judicial panel. Shortage of presiding officers, judicial and technical members.
A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose strongly criticized the passing of the Tribunal Reforms Bill, 2021 without debate and gave sufficient reasons justifying the need to reverse the decisions of the apex courts.
The law deals with the terms and conditions for service and tenure of members of various tribunals and the latest law revives some of the provisions struck down recently by a bench headed by Justice LN Rao, including a petition filed by the Madras Bar Association.
“We have seen two days ago how what was rejected by this court has come back. I don’t think there has been any debate in Parliament. No reason has been given. We have no problem in making laws by Parliament. Parliament has the power to make any law. But at least we should know the reasons behind the government re-introducing this bill after the ordinance was repealed. Nothing is there. I read in newspapers that and from finance ministers, there is only one word that the court has not struck down the ordinance on constitutionality, the CJI saw the matter posted for August 31.
The observations are significant in view of the fact that the CJI, while speaking at the 75th Independence Day celebrations organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association, had flagged the same issue by saying that the law-making process in the country was “sorry”. Is. about matters” because there was a lack of debate in the Parliament leading to a lack of clarity and “a lot of gaps and ambiguity” in the legislations.
At the outset, the CJI himself read out a few paragraphs containing critical comments against the government’s stand on the tribunal from the judgment delivered by a bench headed by Justice LN Rao.
“… We have observed a disturbing trend of the Government not implementing the directions issued by this Court. To ensure that the Tribunal should not function as another department under the control of the Executive, time and again Directions have been issued, which are forcing the petitioner to approach this Court time and again. It is time we put an end to this practice…’
Justice Ramana then read out the minister’s statement in Parliament and said that it was pointed out that “the judiciary has not struck it (the ordinance) on constitutionality. It has raised only certain questions on certain points. What is important is the independence of the judiciary. We have come here to make laws…’. “It was the debate and the reasons given in Parliament. This is a serious issue.”
“What do we have to understand from this Bill and the Act? Will the tribunals have to continue or be closed? These are the only two issues which are to be finally settled,” the bench said, asking the government to show the note prepared by the ministry for introducing the bill.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, “My reply can never be negative when something falls under your control. But now that the Bill has become an Act, it will not be possible for me to reply now, as Parliament has passed it in its discretion.” considered appropriate to implement.”
On the issue of filling up the number of vacancies in the tribunals, the bench took note of Mehta’s assurance and in its order said that the appointments are underway.
“We are giving another 10 days to the government. We make it clear that the pendency of these matters should not come in the way of appointment of members to the Tribunals. The bench raised the issue of vacancies in the Tribunal and the lack of steps taken to fill them, saying that we are not aware that any appointment has been made since the last hearing. Mehta said that he has received instructions to say that some appointments have been made. Time has been sought for more appointments in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
The bench asked the Center to make maximum number of appointments in 10 days and said various tribunals were on the verge of becoming inactive. The CJI, who gave details of vacancies in various tribunals on August 6, said that the appointments are always in process.
“I will tell you the meaning of ‘appointment process’. For the last one year and four months, whenever we ask, we are told that it is under process, under process, under process. It doesn’t make any sense. Will give 10 days and we will hear later and we hope you will clear the appointments as much as possible by then”, he said. The bench had given details of pending vacancies in 15 quasi-judicial bodies such as Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), DRAT, Securities Appellate Tribunal, TDSAT, NCLT and NCLAT.
The bench said that 19 posts of presiding officers or chairpersons are vacant in these tribunals and 110 and 111 posts of judicial and technical members are vacant respectively. Mehta said Attorney General KK Venugopal is dealing with the issues and he may be better equipped to respond.
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