The Madras High Court has issued a notice on the plea of the Revenue Bar Association (RBA) challenging the Appellate Tribunals Rules, 2020 as the rules suffer from the same old defects.
The Appellate Tribunals and other Authorities (Qualifications, Experience and other Conditions of Service of Members) Rules, 2020 were laid down in the month of February, 2020, after the Apex court struck down the Rule of 2017 pertaining to the Qualifications, Experience and other Conditions of Service of Members of Tribunal and other authorities in the case of Rojer Mathew v. South Indian Bank Ltd.
However, the petitioner i.e. Revenue Bar Association (RBA) contended that the Appellate Tribunals Rules that are laid down in 2020 suffers from the same defect as that which were prevalent in the year 2017. The RBA also argues about the violation of the following:
The shortcomings were pointed out by the Revenue Bar Association (RBA) that Short tenure of 3 years in the 2017 Rules was criticised by the Supreme Court in the Rojer Mathew case, as it would have the effect of discouraging meritorious candidates from accepting posts of Judicial Members in Tribunals; in the interest of ensuring independence, the salaries of Tribunal members must be fixed in the parent statute itself and not by the ministers; Applying to the Central Government for sanction of leave is violative of principles of independence of judiciary, as per Article 50 of the Constitution.
Therefore the Division Bench of High Court of Madras comprising of Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad after hearing the matter issued the notice.
