On Friday, the Supreme Court in an order said that all important judicial and administrative members of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) who are due for their retirement should continue holding office till July 26.
The order was passed by Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant after the court made a note about having only 29 members in CAT.
The Central Administrative Tribunal has already been functioning with 34 vacancies, and at this stage any more retirements could lead to its collapse, the Court said.
“How will the tribunal work if appointments are not made? The advertisement (for appointments) was in April 2022. So selection process will obviously take some time.
The Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Balbir Singh apprised that the government is well aware of the problem and has received about 600 applications for the 34 posts, which will fill the vacancies by July.
The Court, however, noted that further vacancies are due to occur on June 17 and June 30, 2022.
The court said that if the Tribunal has to function, we will have to exercise Article 142 power that says the judges will go on working. We will say that until we take up the case again in July, the judges who are set to retire will continue till then.
Taking this into consideration an order was passed, directing all members to continue in their posts till July 26, when the matter will be heard next.
The order said that “Since vacancies will impinge upon citizens right to access to justice, thus we order that pending further order, incumbents holding posts as judicial or administrative member shall continue to function even after the completion of their tenure. This will be subject to members consent, availability. List on July 26. Order to apply till then.