Supreme Court rues knee-jerk tribunal appointments

New Delhi, February 16

Unhappy over inordinate delay in appointments of chairpersons and members to various tribunals, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the bureaucracy was taking it lightly.

“Some knee-jerk appointments took place and nothing after that. We don’t know the fate of members and many are retiring. The bureaucracy is taking it lightly,” a Bench led by CJI NV Ramana told Attorney General KK Venugopal.

As Venugopal tried to explain the issue by showing the list of vacancies, CJI Ramana said the court might have to pass orders after hearing the issue and went on to post the matter for hearing after two weeks.

The top court, which is examining the petitions challenging the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021, had earlier questioned the Centre over inordinate delays in appointments to various tribunals.

Fed up with ad hocism in appointments to consumer commissions, another Bench led by Justice SK Kaul had on October 22 said it’s time to have permanent consumer courts. It was unfortunate that the court was being called upon to fill vacancies in tribunals and if it wasn’t inclined to continue with tribunals, it should abolish them, it had said.