Senior advocate Arvind Datar mentioned the tribunal vacancies matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli.
The Chief Justice told Datar that an email has been circulated by the Attorney General. “The AG circulated an email saying that all the vacancies are almost filled, except few in the green tribunal and the armed forces tribunal,” said the Chief Justice.
Citing the email, he added that ‘the process to fill up the vacancies in National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) will be finished today (Thursday), but National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) will take some time’.
The Chief Justice said the court has been informed that the remaining vacancies, including the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal will also be filled soon.
On February 16, expressing its discontent with the vacancies in the tribunals, the Supreme Court said some “knee-jerk” appointments were made by the Centre to fill up vacancies across the country, and the bureaucracy has been taking up the issue “lightly,”
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana then observed that after a few appointments made initially, nothing substantial happened. The bench said the court is getting requests for the extension of time for National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) matters, etc. The bench said: “Some knee-jerk appointments took place and nothing happened after that. We do not know the fate of members and many are retiring”. The top court emphasized that the bureaucracy is taking the issue lightly.
Earlier, the apex court had made some strong observations in connection with vacancies in tribunals across the country. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal contended before the court that he could show the list of vacancies and the steps taken to fill them up. After a brief hearing in the matter, the top court scheduled the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
In August last year, the top court had cited data to show that around 250 posts are lying vacant in various key tribunals and appellate tribunals across the country. The bench read out the long-list of vacancies across the tribunals and added that 19 presiding officers, 110 judicial members, and 111 technical numbers are pending in all theAtribunals. “This is the scenario of the tribunal. We do not know what is the stand of the government…,” said the Chief Justice.
