The Supreme Court had pulled up the Central Government on many occasions due to the alarming situation of burgeoning vacancies at several DRTs and DRATs.
On Thursday, the Central Government cleared appointments of chairpersons to the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT).
This came a day after the Supreme Court expressed its displeasure stating that the bureaucracy was taking the issue of tribunal appointments very lightly.
“We are getting [requests for] extension of time for NCLT matters etc. Some knee jerk appointments took place and nothing after that. We don’t know the fate of members and many are retiring. Bureaucracy is taking it lightly”, the Bench headed by CJI NV Ramana had said.
The Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021, passed by the parliament laying down the tenures and other service conditions of tribunal members, has also contributed to the friction.
Many of the provisions of the Act run contrary to the mandate of the Supreme Court judgment regarding tenures of service of tribunal members.
The Supreme Court had on July 14, 2021 struck down the newly inserted Section 184 of the Finance Act, 2017 as amended by the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021 (Ordinance) to the extent that it fixed the tenure of members and chairperson of tribunals at 4 years.
The top court had ruled that Section 184(11) of the Finance Act, which prescribes a tenure of four years for members, was contrary to the principles of separation of powers, independence of judiciary, rule of law and Article 14 of the Constitution of India as well as the judgment of the apex court in the Madras Bar Association III case.
However, as per Section 5 of the new Bill, the term of office of the Chairperson of a tribunal shall be four years or till the person attains age of 70, whichever is earlier. Similarly, for members of tribunals, the tenure has been prescribed as four years or till he/she attains 67 years, whichever is earlier.
Source: Barandbench
