Breaking: Supreme Court passes interim order on appointments to Tribunals [Read order]

In a significant order passed today, the Supreme Court accepted the suggestions made by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Bar Association on appointments to various tribunals..By passing this order, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud effectively stayed many provisions of the Rules framed under the Finance Act, 2017..The suggestions were made by Senior Counsel Aryama Sundaram in the batch of petitions challenging the Finance Act, 2017 and the Rules made thereunder pertaining to tribunals. The following were the suggestions made by Sundaram..1. Staying the composition of Search-cum-Selection Committee as prescribed in Column 4 of the Schedule to the Tribunal, Appellate Tribunal and Other Authorities (Qualification, experience and other conditions of service of members) Rules, 2017 both in respect of Chairman/Judicial Members and Administrative Members. A further direction to constitute an interim Search-cumSelection Committee during the pendency of this W.P. in respect of both Judicial/Administrative members as under:.Chief Justice of India or his nominee – ChairmanChairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal – MemberTwo Secretaries nominated by the Government of India – Members.2. Appointment to the post of Chairman shall be made by nomination by the Chief Justice of India..3. Stay the terms of office of 3 years as prescribed in Column 5 of the Schedule to the Tribunal, Appellate Tribunal and other Authorities (Qualification, experience and other conditions of service of members) Rules, 2017. A further direction fixing the term of office of all selectees by the aforementioned interim Search-cumSelection Committee and consequent appointees as 5 years..4. All appointments to be made in pursuance to the selection made by the interim Search-cum-Selection Committee shall be with conditions of service as applicable to the Judges of High Court..5. A further direction to the effect that all the selections made by the aforementioned interim selection committee and the consequential appointment of all the selectees as Chairman/Judicial/Administrative members for a term of 5 years with conditions of service as applicable to Judges of High Court shall not be affected by the final outcome of the Writ Petition.”.Attorney General KK Venugopal accepted suggestions 1, 2 and 3 but sought certain modifications in suggestions 4 and 5 as follows:.“4. All appointments to be made in pursuance to the selection made by the interim Search-cum-Selection Committee shall abide by the conditions of service as per the old Acts and the Rules..5. A further direction to the effect that all the selections made by the aforementioned interim selection committee and the consequential appointment of all the selectees as Chairman/Judicial/Administrative members shall be for a period as has been provided in the old Acts and the Rules.”.The Court proceeded to accept the suggestions along with the modifications sought by Venugopal and also ordered that the suggestions would be applicable for selection of Chairpersons and the Judicial/ Administrative Technical/ Expert Members for all Tribunals..“we accept the suggestions and direct that the same shall be made applicable for selection of the Chairpersons and the Judicial/Administrative/Technical/Expert Members for all tribunals.”.The matter will now be listed after two weeks..Read Aryama Sundaram’s suggestions and the order passed by the Court below.