Tribunal Rules 2020: Attorney General assures Supreme Court that members of Tribunals will be reappointed after four years' tenure

The Attorney General for India, KK Venugopal, told the Supreme Court on Friday that when members are appointed to Tribunals under the Tribunal Rules of 2020, they will be reappointed after the end of their four years' tenure..This submission came from the AG when the Court was hearing arguments on the petition filed by the Madras Bar Association assailing the Tribunal Rules of 2020 for being in the teeth of the principles of judicial independence and the separation of powers..Final hearings in challenge to Tribunal Rules 2020: LIVE UPDATES from Supreme Court.One of the points of contention in the petition is that the new Rules provide for a four-year tenure for the members appointed to the Tribunals. This figure of four years is not only in violation of the Supreme Court's precedents in judgments of SP Sampat Kumar as well as Rojer Mathew, it will also disincentivise lawyers from seeking appointment, it was contended by the petitioning association..Senior Counsel Arvind Datar, who is representing the Madras Bar Association (MBA) in this matter, explained to the Court that the recommendation from the Bar is that the tenure ought to be fixed at five years in line with the previous judicial pronouncements on this aspect. .Datar's argument hinged on two basic contentions i.e. that a high threshold of 25 years' of experience as a qualification is being considered for a post with only four years' tenure would reduce the pool of candidates who would seek appointment at the Tribunals..Lawyers with a long-standing legal practice of 25 years would be reluctant to seek an appointment to the Tribunals if the tenure stands only at four years, considering they would have to let go of their legal practice for this appointment.."I would submit on behalf of the Bar that experience of 25 years would disincentivize lawyers to leave their practice to join the Tribunal for 4 years whereas if the experience is fixed for 15 years, it will attract more applicants."Arvind Datar.As such, along with an increase in the tenure from four years to five years, Datar also proceeded to make a case for reduction in the qualification for eligible candidates from 25 years of substantial experience to 10 or 15 years of experience..The Centre's position as regards these points is that with an experience requirement of 25 years, a lawyer ordinarily would become eligible to seek appointment around the age of 48 years. The appointee would then be eligible for reappointment after four years' tenure subject to the condition that there are no adverse findings against this member..The appointee would be eligible for reappointments till the age of superannuation prescribed, the AG said while explaining the rationale. Moreover, the AG also urged the Court to take his submission on the aspect of reappointment on record. ."My statement may be recorded on behalf of the government, I have instructions, that there will be reappointment after four years"Attorney General for India KK Venugopal.The Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat also asked the AG if the government would be agreeable to increasing the tenure from four to five years considering judgments of two Constitution Benches require for the tenure of Tribunal Members to be five years..While the Court asked the AG to seek instructions on this question, Datar sought to submit that this increased tenure of five years, if agreed to by the government, also may be with a provision for reappointment as the AG has assured..The hearing in the case remains part-heard and will resume when the Bench of this combination is scheduled to assemble next.