New law for uniform tenure, salary in tribunals

New Delhi: The government today gave its nod to a proposal to bring uniformity in the tenure, allowances and retirement age of chairpersons and members of various tribunals in the country, paving way for an “overarching” legislation. The law ministry proposal envisages a uniform tenure of a maximum of five years for chairpersons and members of tribunals. But they will have varied retirement ages of 70 years for a Supreme Court judge and 67 years for a high court judge.[caption id=“attachment_1366969” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Uniform salary. Andrew Middleton/Flickr[/caption] The retirement age of 65 has been proposed for members who join tribunals from the administrative side, according to the proposal cleared by the Union cabinet. As of now, some tribunals have a three-year tenure for retired judges while, for others, it may run for five years. According to a Law Commission report, over 20 acts administered by various Union ministries govern the functioning of hundreds of tribunals in the country. The legislation, based on the recommendations of a Group of Ministers, will be as one document which covers the various laws governing the tribunals with regard to uniformity of tenure and service conditions. “Chairpersons/members may be reappointed for one term of a maximum of five years so long as they satisfy the criterion of age of retirement. There may, however, be no bar on members/chairpersons being appointed to another tribunal, provided they are within the prescribed age of retirement,” the proposal says. An “overarching” legislation will be introduced in Parliament based on the proposal. For those joining any tribunal, the salaries would be uniform at Rs 90,000 in case of a Supreme Court judge and Rs 80,000 for a high court judge and secretary in the Central government. Pension for earlier service of chairpersons and members of tribunals will be deducted from their salary. This would, however, not apply where chairpersons and members are provided a consolidated amount, as is the case with Trai, Irda, Sebi and CCI. The proposal says that while Central Government Health Scheme facility is available for sitting and retired judges and retired government officials appointed as chairpersons and members, health facilities will be extended to other appointees of tribunals, such as advocates, CAs and ‘domain experts’ for the duration of their tenure. The planned legislation bars members and chairpersons from taking up arbitration work while serving on the tribunals. But if they are involved in arbitration at the time of their appointment, the “competent authority” may allow them to complete that work on a “case-by-case” basis. Supreme Court had in December threatened to stay the appointment of retired judges to hundreds of tribunals across the country, blaming the Centre’s delay in responding to its repeated suggestions about ensuring uniformity in the appointment process and service conditions. A bench of justices GS Singhvi and C Nagappan pointed out the glaring disparity in the appointment process, tenure and service conditions of retired high court and Supreme Court judges chosen for tribunals and said since nothing much had been done for a year, “we are inclined to stay all appointment of retired judges to tribunals”. PTI