Supreme Court Expresses Concerns At Centre's Delay In Appointing APTEL Chairperson

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concerns at the post of Chairperson of the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity (APTEL) lying vacant.Chief Justice of India NV Ramana asked Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj to take instructions from Central Government regarding the appointment of APTEL Chairperson. "When are they filling the vacancies of Chairman? You get instructions as to why they are keeping the files for so many months?," the CJI said. The remark was made by the Top Judge while ASG KM Nataraj had sought urgent listing of a civil appeal filed by Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd against an order dated March 22, 2022 passed by APTEL.APTEL Chairperson's post has been lying vacant since August 12, 2021 following the retirement of Justice Manjula Chellur.Interestingly, another bench also raised concerns regarding the vacancies in another Tribunal today. A bench headed by Justice SK Kaul had asked the Union Government why should the Court not pass orders directing the recovery proceedings in all matters before the FEMA Appellate Tribunal to be stood over till the time it starts functioning.The Supreme Court has been stressing on the importance of timely filling up Tribunal vacancies. Several benches have expressed concerns at the delay in filling up vacancies of various tribunals.It may be noted that on March 24, while hearing a matter relating to PMLA Appellate Tribunal, the bench led by Justice Kaul had warned that it will stay all proceedings unless the Central Government fills up the vacancies.In March, a bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar had also expressed concerns at the unfilled vacancies in tribunals.It may be noted that the bench headed by CJI NV Ramana while dealing with the matter related to filling up of vacancies in Tribunals on various occasions has criticized Union Government over the delay in filling up Tribunal vacancies

Supreme Court Expresses Concerns At Centre's Delay In Appointing APTEL Chairperson

Shruti Kakkar

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