New Delhi : The Supreme Court came down heavily on the Centre for overturning its verdicts through enactment of law. The government should not test the court’s patience, said the top court on Monday referring to the Tribunal Reforms Act passed in parliament hastily amid ruckus. What kind of act is this, the court asked govt. The government should refrain from weakening the country’s judicial system, said the court. The scathing criticisms came over petition filed against the new law.
In a case earlier, the government had assured filling posts of chairman and members lying vacant at various tribunals. However at time of hearing today, the Solicitor General Thushar Mehta sated only vacancies at the Administrative Tribunal were filled. The admission drew intense flak from the Supreme Court that said, several tribunals are on the verge of closure owing to lack of appointments.
Changes were effected toward appointments at tribunals. Following this, the government brought about an ordinance to neuter it. Subsequently, the Supreme Court examined the contents and scrapped the ordinance. The government then crafted Tribunal Reforms Bill reinstating all of the scrapped provisions and in the parliament session held recently, passed it as law. Petitioners including Congress leader Jayaram Ramesh challenged the new Act in the Supreme Court.
Bringing about a law to reinstate provisions scrapped previously by court is not appropriate thing to do, the court slammed, adding that the government should make appointments against vacancies at tribunals as ordered by the court earlier.
