The Supreme Court on Thursday assured lawyers that it will take up the issue of vacancies in key tribunals soon, while indicating that it is a problem that cannot be simplistically resolved by sending those responsible for the appointments to jail for contempt.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana asked lawyers to be patient.
“Should I call the government today and send them to jail? Will they then appoint people? Have some patience. I took this up yesterday and we will take it up,” the CJI told advocates who highlighted the vacancies in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
This is the second consecutive day the apex court has dwelt on tribunal vacancies. On Wednesday, the court had said its judicial intervention saw the government make abrupt efforts to fill up vacancies in tribunals some time back and nothing after that. The court had wondered whether the bureaucracy was taking the problem of vacancies lightly.
In September last year, a Special Bench of the Supreme Court led by the CJI had said it was “not interested in a confrontation” with the government but the court was running out of patience.
The Bench, also comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao, had said tribunals across the country were on the verge of collapse. Cases had been adjourned by a year.
The court had even said the only three options were to close the tribunals, make the appointments itself or initiate contempt action.
