NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Centre for cherry-picking names recommended by the Search and Selection Committees (SCSCs) for filling up tribunal vacancies, adding it will hold its hand for now on hauling the government up for contempt.
While the Centre claimed it had notified 84 appointments in three different tribunals — National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) and Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) — on September 12, a special bench led by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and comprising justices D Y Chandrachud and L N Rao took a swipe at it.
The SCSC recommended 11 judicial members and 10 technical members for NCLT. But the appointment letters suggest some members were cherry-picked. “We cannot ignore selected candidates and go to waitlist. What type of selection and appointment is this,” the CJI asked. ITAT appointments, too, were on similar lines, the bench said.
“As part of SCSC for NCLT, I interviewed 534 candidates for judicial post and 400-odd for technical. Out of that we chose 11 for judicial and 10 for technical. Of the judicial members, they selected four and picked up three others from the waitlist. Same with technical members. We travelled across the country for this... But it seems to be a waste of time,” the CJI rued.
Venugopal defended the government, citing a provision under the new Act. Justice Chandrachud reminded him that he was relying on a provision struck down by the SC in July. When Justice Rao emphasised the government couldn’t have picked up people from the list prepared for later-day vacancies, the A-G said the government was well within its rights to do so. Venugopal cited the The Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021, to assert the Centre’s dominance over such appointments.
Time sought
“What is the sanctity of the process if govt has the last word?” the bench asked. The A-G said, “Please have it after a week. We’ll reconsider non-acceptance list.”