IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
KUDRAT SANDHU ..Petitioner
UNION OF INDIA AND ANR ..Respondents
AND WITH
O R D E R
Dr D Y CHANDRACHUD, J
1 By an order dated 20 March 2018, we had clarified the previous order
dated 9 February 2018. Clause (iii) of the clarifications is relevant and reads
as follows:
“(iii) The tenure of the Chairperson and the Judicial/Administrative/Expert/Technical Members of all the
Tribunals shall be for a period of five years or the maximum age that was fixed/determined under the old Acts and Rules;”
On 16 July 2018, this Court issued the following directions in regard to the age
of the superannuation of Member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal:
“At this juncture, we may note that there is some confusion with regard to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) as regards the age of superannuation. We make it clear that the person selected as Member of the ITAT will continue till the age of 62 years and the person holding the post of President, shall continue till the age of 65 years.”
CESTAT:
2 In IA 113281 of 2018, the applicant is an Additional District and
Sessions Judge in the State of West Bengal, who has been selected as
Member (Judicial) in the CESTAT. The notification of appointment of six
officers who have been selected as Member (Judicial), including the applicant,
stipulates that they shall hold office for a period of five years or till attaining the
age of 62 years, whichever is earlier “in terms of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s
order dated 20 March 2018”. A member of the judicial service would have
ordinarily continued until the date of superannuation in the state judicial
service, subject to the service rules. It would be manifestly inappropriate to
adopt an interpretation as a result of which, upon assuming office as Member
(Judicial) in CESTAT the officer will have a tenure which will expire after five
years, if it falls prior to attaining the age of 62 years. We, accordingly, are of
the view that the clarification issued for the ITAT in the order dated 20 March
2018 needs to be reiterated in the case of the members of the CESTAT, which
we do. We clarify that a person selected as Member of the CESTAT will
continue until the age of 62 years while a person holding the post of President
shall continue until the age of 65 years.
AFT:
3 Members of the Armed Forces Tribunal shall hold office until the
attainment of the age of 65 years. Chairpersons who have been former
Judges of the Supreme Court shall hold office until the attainment of the age of
70 years.
CAT:
4 In the case of the Central Administrative Tribunal, we clarify that the old
rules/provisions shall continue to apply.
5 We direct the Union government to file a status report before this Court
within a period of two weeks setting out position with respect to each Tribunal,
including the vacancies and the stage of the selection process. IA No.113281 of
2018 is disposed of accordingly.
[Dr D Y CHANDRACHUD] New Delhi;
August 21, 2018
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Writ Petition (Civil) No. 279/2017 KUDRAT SANDHU Petitioner UNION OF INDIA & ANR. Respondents T.C.(C) No. 49/2018 (XVI-A)
T.C.(C) No. 51/2018 ()
Date : 21-08-2018 This matter was called on for pronouncement of order today.
For Petitioner Mr. Rupesh Kumar, AOR Ms. Neelam Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Pravesh Bahuguna, Adv.
Mr. Rajeev Sharma, Adv.
Mr. V.B. Saharya, Adv.
Mr. Viresh B. Saharya, Adv.
Mr. Rajiv Shukla, Adv.
Ms. Shivani Kapoor, Adv.
Mr. Jatin Ghuliani, Adv.
Mr. Prakash Ranjan Nayak, AOR
Mr. Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, AOR Mr. Manoranjan Paikaray, Adv.
Mr. Aniruddha Purushotham, Adv.
Mr. Arun Monga, Adv.
Ms. Divya Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Marcellina Kalikotey, Adv.
Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, AOR
Ms. Maneesha Dhir, Adv.
Mr. Karan Batura, Adv.
Ms. Anushree Prashit Kapadia, AOR
Mr. Anand Varma, AOR Ms. Shubhangni Jain, Adv.
Ms. Manpreet Kaur, Adv.
Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR Mr. Nikhil Swami, AOR
Mr. V. K. Verma, AOR Mr. Nikhil Nayyar, AOR
Mr. K. Krishna Kumar, AOR Mr. Annam D. N. Rao, AOR
Ms. Diksha Rai, AOR Mr. Jagjit Singh Chhabra, AOR
For Respondents Ms. S.S. Shamshery, Adv.
Ms. Rukmini Bobde, Adv.
Mr. Harish V. Shekhar, Adv.
Ms. Shraddha Deshmukh, Adv.
Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Zoheb Hossain, AOR Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR
Mr. Ajay Bansal, Adv.
Mr. Gaurav Yadava, Adv.
Ms. Veena Bansal, Adv.
Mr. Ashok Mathur, AOR Mrs. Anil Katiyar, AOR Mr. Sonal Jain, AOR
Hon’ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud pronounced
the order of the Bench comprising Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India, Hon’ble Mr. Justice A.M. Khanwilkar
and His Lordship.
In terms of the signed reportable order, I.A.
No. 113281/2018 in Writ Petition (C) No. 279/2017 is disposed of.
I.A. No. 105561/2018 in Writ Petition (C) No.
279/2017 also stands disposed of.
(Deepak Guglani) (H.S. Parasher) Court Master Assistant Registrar (signed reportable order is placed on the file)