Supreme Court Expresses Concerns At CAT Vacancies Remaining Unfilled; Extends Tenure Of Members Of Kolkata Bench

On 23.09.2022, the same Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli had extended the tenure of the said members in the following terms -

"We direct that subject to the availability of the Judicial Member, Ms. Bidisha Banerjee and the administrative member, Dr. Nandita Chatterjee their terms shall be extended till further orders, until fresh appointments are made to fill up posts of Judicial Members and Administrative Members in the Kolkata Bench of the Administrative Tribunal."

The term of office of the Judicial Member, Ms. Bidisha Banerjee had expired on 14th September, 2022 and her term as well as that of the Administrative Member, Dr. Nandita Chatterjee had been extended till 29th September, 2022 by an order of the Apex Court.

The Bench had noted that the CAT, Kolkata Bench has a sanctioned strength of 4 members - 2 Judicial Members and 2 Administrative Members. It had been apprised that at present only one regular judicial member has been appointed whose term would expire on 23rd August, 2026.

During the course of the hearing Additional Solicitor General, Mr. Balbir Singh had informed the Bench that the proposal for appointment of 17 Administrative Members across the country has been submitted to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. He added that the approval is expected to come within 2 weeks.

"So far, the Search-cum-Selection Committee has already approved 17 names for Administrative Members. That has gone to the competent authority in the last week of July. We are expecting next week or week thereafter we will have 17 names available and one will go to Calcutta."

However, on Monday (31st October, 2022) when the matter came up for hearing the Bench found out that the appointments are yet to be made to CAT, Kolkata Bench. Mr. Singh implored the Bench to not extend the term of the said two members any further, as the same would not be in consonance with the decision of the Search-cum-Selection Committee. He submitted -

"I have given a note…the Search-cum-Selction Committee has decided not to extend."

Justice Chandrachud, perplexed by the request made by the ASG asked, "Who will function over there?"

Mr. Singh suggested that it is legally permissible for a single member to take over the functioning of the Tribunal.

Justice Chandrachud interjected, "Mr. Balbir Singh when are the appointments going to be made?"

He added -

"We will direct that these two people shall be extended until fresh appointments are made."

As the ASG reiterated that the only difficulty is that the decision to extend their tenure might be in the teeth of the decision of the Search-cum-Selction Committee, Justice Chandrachud pointed out that the extensions are merely a stop-gap arrangement.

"They might not be appointed as tenured people, but someone has to continue the work."

The Judge advised that if the Centre is so concerned about the extension granted to the concerned members of the CAT, Kolkata Tribunal they should endeavour to expedite the appointment procedure.

"Make the fresh appointments first. Once the new appointees come in these members will go out."

[Case Title: CAT Bar Association Kolkata And Anr. v. UoI And Ors. WP(C) No. 662/2022]

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