Kerala High Court extends term of judicial members of Kerala Administrative Tribunal

The Kerala High Court on Thursday further extended the term of the two judicial members at the Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) and directed the registry to place before the Chief Justice a request from the government to select new members (Kerala Administrative tribunal Ernakulam Advocates' Association Vs. Union of India)..A Division Bench of Justices A Muhamed Mustaque and Sophy Thomas issued the order noting that any further delay in initiating the selection process under the will Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021 would adversely impact the functioning of KAT."It is to be noted that the selection process has not been commenced in terms of the Tribunals Reforms Act. If any delay occurs, it would seriously affect the functioning of the Tribunal. It is appropriate that the Registry brings it to the notice of the Hon'ble the Chief Justice about the communication from the Government dated October 16, 2021 as well as November 2, 2021. In the meanwhile, we permit the judicial members to continue.".At the hearing, the Government Pleader submitted two communications that had been issued to the Registrar General by the Additional Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary to the Government. Both communications requested Chief Justice S Manikumar to convene a meeting for selection of two new judicial members for the KAT. Senior Government Pleader Antony Mukkath opposed further continuation of the judicial members and submitted that the chairman can function with the assistance of the administrative member. However, the Court stood firm in its stance that KAT cannot function without judicial members and extended their term once again..The term of the present judicial members had expired on July 19. On expiry of the term of the present judicial members, the tribunal would have had to function with a single administrative member without any judicial members from July 20..This had prompted two bar associations, Kerala Administrative Tribunal Ernakulam Advocates Association and Kerala Administrative Tribunal Advocates' Association, Thiruvananthapuram along with two lawyers, Vazhuthacadu Narendran and RK Muralidharan to move the High Court seeking extension of term of judicial members.At the time, they had also sought for expeditious appointment of chairperson as that post had also been vacant since September 15, 2020.The Court had then passed an interim order allowing the extension of the terms of the current judicial members of the KAT until a chairman is appointed or till new members are appointedLater, in August, the Court deemed it necessary to issue contempt of court notices to the Union Cabinet Secretary and the Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the Central government for their failure to appoint a Chairperson..On August 31, the Central Government notified the appointment of retired judge of the Kerala High Court, Justice CK Abdul Rahim as the chairperson.However, no new judicial members have been appointed yet. .The matter will be taken up next on November 25, 2021.[Read Order]