Today, the Supreme Court (SC) came down hard on the Centre for failing to follow its instructions pertaining to appointments in tribunals and gave it a deadline of 10 days to make the necessary appointments.
On 5 August 2021, the SC had given the Centre a 10-day deadline to apprise the court about the steps taken to fill these vacancies. Terming the failure a “sorry state of affairs”, the SC had suspected that the delay was owing to the active participation of certain lobbies.
Besides this, the Apex Court also slammed the Centre for not listing the reasons behind introducing the Tribunal Reforms Bill 2021 in the Parliament, despite the Ordinance being struck down by the former. “It’s the Legislature’s prerogative to make laws, but we must know the reasons for making this law, the reasons for making this legislation?” Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana said.
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Also, the CJI asked the Centre to clarify if the tribunals in question are to be discontinued.
The Tribunals Reforms Bill has been passed by both the Houses, recently. The Bill has provisions pertaining to the age criteria, and search and selection norms for making appointments in tribunals. The CJI also sought clarifications from Centre on why the Bill was introduced with provisions that have been overturned by the court.
The Bill has achieved the status of an Act and it responding on it may not be proper on his part, the Centre’s representative in the SC, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said while responding to this question.
On 5 August 2021, the Supreme Court had observed that many posts in AFT, NGT and the Railways Claim Tribunal are lying vacant and the Centre has not acted to fill this void.
