Parliament passes the Tribunals Reforms Bill 2021; seeks to dissolve certain appellate tribunals

By - Divisha Srivastava*

The Rajya Sabha passed the Tribunals Reforms Bill 2021 on August 9, 2021, and the Bill contains certain provisions similar to that of the Tribunals Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance, 2021, which was recently struck down by the Supreme Court in the Madras Bar Association case (2021). The Bill seeks to dissolve certain existing appellate bodies and transfer their functions (such as adjudication of appeals) to other existing judicial bodies (For more details click here).

The Supreme Court had struck down the clause in the Ordinance that fixed the tenure at 4 years by a 2:1 majority in the Madras Bar Association case (2021) on the grounds that it was contradictory to the directives in prior decisions that the term should be at least 5 years.

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In addition, the Apex Court (by a 2:1 majority) overturned the provisions of the Ordinance that provided a 50-year minimum age limit for appointment as members of Tribunals, which was contradictory to a previous ruling. The Court ruled that only advocates with at least ten years of experience should be considered for appointments to the Tribunals.

The Tribunals Reforms Bill, on the other hand, retains the 50-year-old minimum age limit, as stated in the proviso to Section 3. The Chairperson and members of the tribunal have the same four-year term limits. During the Rajya Sabha debate, some members pointed out that Bill's provisions were in violation of the Supreme Court’s decision.

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In response to the criticism, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the house's rights cannot be limited and that the government respects the courts. Despite the opposition’s best efforts, a resolution to submit the bill to a select committee was defeated with 44 votes in favour of and 79 votes against the resolution. The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 2, 2021, and was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 3, 2021.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRIBUNALS REFORMS BILL, 2021

*Divisha Srivastava is a 1st year student pursuing B.B.A.LL.B from S.N.D.T School of Law, Mumbai, Maharashtra.