Supreme Court said to the centre that, “We are a democratic country. You have to follow the rule of law”.
By The Newster
The Supreme Court of India lambasted at the central government for cherry picking the recommended members of tribunals by the court itself. The central government has been given two weeks to complete tribunal appointments.
Supreme Court reprimanded the centre saying, “Return with appointment letters.”
Chief Justice NV Ramana said while hearing the case, “We are a democratic country. You have to follow the rule of law”, NDTV reported.
The Chief Justice of India highlighted that the Modi’s government approach towards the appointments “is very unfortunate”.
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CJI said, “I have seen the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) appointments…. more recommendations were made. But in (the) appointments, cherry picking was done. What kind of selection is this? And the same thing (has been) done with (the) ITAT (Income Tax Appellate Tribunal) members also. We are very unhappy with how the decisions are being taken.”
He further added that, “I am also part of the NCLT Selection Committee. We interviewed 544 people… out of which we gave the names of 11 judicial members and 10 technical members. From all of these recommendations, only some of them were appointed by the government… rest of the names went to (the) wait list.”
“We travelled throughout the country to conduct interviews. We wasted our time? We travelled in the midst of Covid because the government (had) requested us to carry out the interviews,” he averred .
Justice L Nageswara Rao, member of the bench hearing the case asked, “What is the sanctity of the selection committee (whose composition includes Supreme Court Judges) if the government is going to have the last say?”
Last week the Supreme Court of India had warned the government of testing court’s patience. The court lashed out at the government over a large number of vacancies in tribunals and quasi-judicial bodies in the country.
The Chief Justice had said that, “We are upset… but we don’t want confrontation with the government” to which Mehta replied, “Government doesn’t want confrontation either”.
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