Vacancies In Tribunals:
The Supreme Court assured lawyers that it will take up the issue of vacancies in key tribunals soon, while indicating that it is a problem that cannot be simplistically resolved by sending those responsible for the appointments to jail for contempt.
- In September last year, a Special Bench of the Supreme Court led by the CJI had said it was “not interested in a confrontation” with the government but the court was running out of patience.
- The Bench had said tribunals across the country were on the verge of collapse. Cases had been adjourned by a year.
- The court had even said the only three options were to
- close the tribunals,
- make the appointments itself or
- initiate contempt action.
- Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976: Based on the recommendations of the Swaran Singh Committee, Part XIV-A was added by the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976, titled as ‘Tribunals’ which provided for the establishment of
- Administrative Tribunals’ under Article 323-A: It gives exclusive power to the Parliament for establishing tribunals.
- Tribunals for other matters’ under Article 323-B: It gives power to the concerned State Legislature to constitute Tribunals for the respective subjects specified therein.
- Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985: It provides for the establishment of three kinds of administrative Tribunals: (a) The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), State Administrative Tribunals (SAT) and Joint Administrative Tribunals (JAT).
