The Center has told the Supreme Court that it has made 84 appointments to six tribunals, including ITAT and NCLT and no recommendation of the Search-cum-Selection Committee (SCSC) is pending with it at present.
The claims made by the Center in its affidavit filed on September 14 are significant in view of the fact that the apex court on Wednesday expressed strong displeasure over non-filling of vacancies in the tribunals and “cherry picking” of names in some of the tribunals. After being dismissed from one of the recent appointments.
A special bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana assured the Center to fill up the vacant posts in the next two weeks and said since then it has been holding its hands on contempt and petitions seeking to fill up the posts.
“As on date, the Central Government has acted upon all the recommendations made by the SCSC and the appointment orders have been issued…”, said the affidavit filed through the Director of Revenue, Arvind Saran.
The Center also gave a chart detailing the appointments made to Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Telecom Disputes and Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), Appellate Tribunal. For Electricity (APTEL) and Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT).
“A total of 84 appointments were made to various tribunals during the year 2020 and 2021,” the affidavit said.
The affidavit first mentioned the recommendations and appointments made by the Center to the National Company Law Tribunal.
SCSC has recommended 11 Judicial Members and 10 Technical Members and the Center has appointed 8 Judicial Members and 10 Technical Members.
As far as TDSAT is concerned, the SCSC made recommendations against two vacancies and the Center appointed one member.
In ITAT, the committee recommended the names of 16 judicial and 12 accountant members and the Center has appointed six judicial and seven accountant members.
The affidavit said that in the NCDRC, the SCSC has recommended four judicial and two technical members and among them two judicial and two technical members have been appointed.
Similarly in APTEL a technical member, as recommended by SCSC, has been appointed, the affidavit said, adding that in AFT, the Center appointed 6 judicial members and five administrative members were appointed earlier.
For the remaining vacancies, the SCSC will have to make fresh recommendations, the affidavit said.
According to the apex court’s August 5 data, there were 19 vacancies of presiding officers in fifteen types of quasi-judicial bodies, from debt recovery tribunals to national company law tribunals, followed by judicial and technical members with 110 and 111 posts respectively. . in country.
As per records, in Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs), which were set up to recover bad loans of banks, 15 posts of presiding officers are vacant in the country and its appellate body, DRAT, Calcutta branch does not have a chairperson. .
There is a vacancy for a technical member in the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), it had said, adding the Appellate Tribunal for Confiscated Assets (ATFP) does not have a chairman and a technical member.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.
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