"Show Us One Appointment You Made": Supreme Court To Centre In Tribunal Matter- Read Full Courtroom Exchange

The Supreme Court on Monday demanded from the Centre the rationale behind the recently-passed Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021 after the Court struck down the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021.The bench of Chief Justice N. V. Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose was hearing a petition seeking directions for the constitution of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) appellate tribunal which had not been set up even after 4 years of the GST Act being in existence. On the last occasion, Supreme Court had asked the Union Government to make a "clear stand" as regards the timely filling up of vacancies in Tribunals across the country."All tribunals have the same problem. Let us hear SG Tushar Mehta", remarked the CJ at the outset on Monday.The SG told the bench, "After the last hearing, the process has commenced, some of the appointments are made. The remaining are in the process of being made."The CJ asked, "Show me one appointment you have made" "In CAT, appointments are made. I had a word with the government today in the morning to get latest information. My request is if you can post it after two weeks, we can come with substantial progress", replied the SG."It was in 2017 when the first Madras Bar Association case was there. Six times this court has said how the tribunals have to function. I will read out for your benefit the observations we had made in the last order of Justice L. Nageswara Rao's bench", observed the CJ.The CJ then read the epilogue from the November 2020 judgment of the Supreme Court where the 2020 Tribunal Rules were under challenge- "Dispensation of justice by the Tribunals can be effective only when they function independently of any executive control: this renders them credible and generates public confidence. We have noticed a disturbing trend of the Government not implementing the directions issued by this Court. To ensure that the Tribunals should not function as another department under the control of the executive, repeated directions have been issued which have gone unheeded forcing the Petitioner to approach this Court time and again. It is high time that we put an end to this practice.""Rules are framed which are completely contrary to the directions issued by this Court. Upon the tribunals has devolved the task of marking boundaries of what is legally permissible and feasible (as opposed to what is not lawful and is indefensible) conduct, in a normative sense guiding future behaviour of those subject to the jurisdictions of such tribunals. This task is rendered even more crucial, given that appeals against their decisions lie directly to the Supreme Court and public law intervention on the merits of such decisions is all but excluded. Also, these tribunals are expected to be consistent, and therefore, adhere to their precedents, in as much as they oversee regulatory behaviour in several key areas of the economy. Therefore, it is crucial that these tribunals are run by a robust mix of experts, i.e. those with experience in policy in the relevant field, and those with judicial or legal experience and competence in such fields. The Court also noted in its 2020 judgement as follows:"The functioning or non-functioning of any of these tribunals due to lack of competence or understanding has a direct adverse impact on those who expect effective and swift justice from them. The resultant fallout is invariably an increased docket load, especially by recourse to Article 226 of the Constitution of India. These aspects are highlighted once again to stress that these tribunals do not function in isolation, but are a part of the larger scheme of justice dispensation envisioned by the Constitution and have to function independently, and effectively, to live up to their mandate"Continuing, the CJ commented, "We have seen two days back how what was struck down by this court has again come back. I don't think any debate has taken place in the Parliament. No reason has been given. We have absolutely no problem with the Parliament making laws. The Parliament has the right to make any law. But at least we must know what are the reasons for the government to introduce this bill again after the striking down of the Ordinance! Nothing is there! I read the newspapers and from the Hon'ble Ministers, there is only one word- That court has not struck down the Ordinance on constitutionality. It is reported in some newspaper..." The CJ read out the reply of the Finance Minister in the Parliament on the issue of the introduction of the Tribunal Reforms Bill- "The Judiciary has not struck it (the Ordinance) down on constitutionality. It has only raised certain questions on some points. The primacy of the legislature to make laws is as important as the independence of the judiciary. We are here to make laws. Of course we have to keep in line with the requirements of the Constitution...We fully respect the independence of the judiciary but we also remember the...

"Show Us One Appointment You Made": Supreme Court To Centre In Tribunal Matter- Read Full Courtroom Exchange

Mehal Jain

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