The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Central government for “cherry picking” names from its recommendations for appointments to tribunals across the country even as it asked the Centre to complete in two weeks appointments in tribunals, facing a severe crunch of presiding officers as well as judicial and technical members, and apprise it of reasons if persons from the recommended list are left out in the process.
The apex court gave the government two weeks to complete tribunal appointments and “Return with the appointment letters.”
Expressing unhappiness over the unfilled vacancies in the quasi-judicial bodies across the nation, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices D Y Chandrachud said the condition is pitiable and the litigants cannot be left in the lurch.
“We are a democratic country. You have to follow the rule of law,” Chief Justice Ramana said during the hearing in a series of sharp remarks.
“I have seen the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) appointments…. more recommendations were made. But in appointments, cherry picking was done. What kind of selection is this? And the same thing was done with ITAT (Income Tax Appellate Tribunal) members also. We are very unhappy with how the decisions are being taken,” the Chief Justice said.
“I am also part of the NCLT Selection Committee. We interviewed 544 people… out of which we gave the names of 11 judicial members and 10 technical members. From all of these recommendations, only some of them were appointed by the government… rest of the names went to (the) wait list,” he added.
Attorney General K K Venugopal said, “The government is entitled to not follow certain recommendations”.
He, however, assured the bench that the Centre would make appointments in two weeks in the tribunals from the list of persons recommended by the search and selection committee.
There are around 250 posts lying vacant in various key tribunals and appellate tribunals.
The top court was hearing a clutch of petitions on the issue of vacancies in tribunals and the new law governing quasi-judicial bodies.
Last week, the apex court gave an ultimatum to the government to fill the vacancies in tribunals, or quasi-judicial bodies, across the country.
Issuing a notice to the Government to file an affidavit in two weeks, Chief Justice N V Ramana said, “We feel the government has no respect for this court” and warned “you (the government) are testing our patience”.
“We are upset… but we don’t want confrontation with the government,” the Chief Justice said.
“Vacancies in critical tribunals like NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) and NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal)… they are important for the economy. Vacancies also in armed forces and consumer tribunals are leading to delays in resolution of cases,” the court said.