CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court on Friday held as unconstitutional the formation of the GST Appellate Tribunal with more number of technical members than judicial members. The bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad was passing orders on the PIL petitions from one V Vasantha Kumar and the Revenue Bar Association (RBA).
The petitioners have challenged Sections 109 and 110 of Chapter XVIII of the Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) Act, which say that the tribunal should have one judicial member and two technical members, each from the Centre and State. The dominance of technical members will violate the doctrine of separation of powers and infringe upon the independence of the judiciary, they contended.