Tribunals
Context:
- The Supreme Court on Thursday said the government’s move to introduce a statute last year on key tribunals, that too, merely days after the court struck down an identical law, may amount to dishonouring its judgment.
About Tribunals:
- Tribunal is aquasi-judicial institution that is set up to deal with problems such as resolving administrative or tax-related disputes.
- It performs a number of functions like adjudicating disputes, determining rights between contesting parties, making an administrative decision, reviewing an existing administrative decisionand so forth.
- Tribunals were not part of the original constitution, it was incorporated in the Indian Constitution by 42ndAmendment Act, 1976.
- Article 323-Adeals with Administrative Tribunals.
- Article 323-Bdeals with tribunals for other matters.
- The Tribunals were set up to reduce the workload of courts, to expedite decisions and to provide a forum which would be manned by lawyers and experts in the areas falling under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.
About the Tribunals Reforms Bill, 2021:
- Dissolution of Existing Bodies: The Bill seeks to dissolve certain appellate bodies and transfer their functions to other existing judicial bodies. For example, the disputes heard by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal will be addressed by the High Court.
- Merging of Existing Bodies: The Finance Act, 2017 merged tribunals based on domain. For example, the Competition Appellate Tribunal has been merged with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal.
- Search-cum-selection Committees: The Chairperson and Members of the Tribunals will be appointed by the central government on the recommendation of a Search-cum-Selection Committee. The Committee will consist of:
- The Chief Justice of India, or a Supreme Court Judge nominated by him, as the Chairperson (with casting vote).
- Two Secretaries nominated by the central governments.
- The sitting or outgoing Chairperson, or a retired Supreme Court Judge, or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court, and
- The Secretary of the Ministry under which the Tribunal is constituted (with no voting right).
Source: THE HINDU.