SC strikes down clauses of Tribunal Reforms Act

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down several provisions of the Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021, including the four-year tenure for tribunal members and the minimum age of 50 for appointments, holding that Parliament had effectively resurrected provisions earlier invalidated by the top court and thereby committed an impermissible act of “legislative overwrite”.

- Utkarsh Anand and Abraham Thomas

Delivering a strongly worded judgment, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran held that the 2021 Act was “mostly a reproduction” of the Tribunal Reforms Ordinance that the court had struck down in July 2021.

Reading out the operative findings, CJI Gavai said: “Various provisions of the impugned Act directly contravene the judgment of this Court. Instead of curing the defects or the basis of the judgment, the 2021 Act has brought the same provisions back with minor tweaking. Such an action amounts to legislative overwrite in extreme terms. It is impermissible.”

The bench expressed its “displeasure” at the Union government’s repeated failure to implement judicial directions safeguarding the independence and effective functioning of tribunals, observing that this stance violated the Constitution.