KUDRAT SANDHU v. UNION OF INDIA AND ANR.

Case Details & Bench

Court: High Court
Hon'ble Judges: Dipak Misra
A. M. Khanwilkar
Dr. D. Y. Chandrachud
Judgment Date: 2018-08-21
Court Decision / Holding: The Court reiterated that ITAT’s age-of-superannuation clarifications apply to CESTAT; fixed tenure for CESTAT Members is until 62 years and Presidents until 65 years. It also affirmed that AFT shall have Members until 65 and Presidents who are former Supreme Court Judges until 70; CAT will continue under old rules. The Union government is directed to file a status report within two weeks on vacancies and the selection process. IA No.113281/2018 is disposed of accordingly.
Final Disposition: Clarifications regarding age of superannuation for Tribunals issued; ITAT guidelines reiterated for CESTAT; old CAT rules noted; status report on vacancies and appointments directed within two weeks; IA No.113281/2018 disposed accordingly.

Parties to the Case

Appellants / Petitioners

KUDRAT SANDHU

Respondents

Union of India
ANR.

Case Synopsis & Summary

By an order dated 20 March 2018, this Court clarified that for several tribunals the tenure of Chairpersons and Members shall be five years or until the maximum age fixed under the old Acts and Rules. On 16 July 2018, the Court reiterated the ITAT rule: ITAT Members shall serve until 62 and Presidents until 65. The present petition concerns a member appointed to the CESTAT (Judicial) and the need to align their tenure with the Court's clarifications. The applicant, an Additional District and Sessions Judge from West Bengal, contends that six officers selected as Members (Judicial) in the CESTAT should hold office for five years or until 62, whichever is earlier, in line with the March 2018 direction. The respondents previously argued for the existing statutory framework and for prompt resolution; counsel for appearing parties were listed. The Court holds that it would be inappropriate to default to a five-year tenure ending before the age of 62 and that the clarifications issued for ITAT should be reiterated for CESTAT (i.e., Members to serve until 62 and Presidents until 65). The Armed Forces Tribunal and Central Administrative Tribunal rules are clarified accordingly, and the Union government is directed to file a status report within two weeks. IA No. 113281/2018 is disposed of accordingly.

Provisions of Law Cited

Constitution of India, Article 32

Submissions & Arguments

Contentions of Appellants / Petitioners

The applicant argued that the tenure of Members (Judicial) of CESTAT should be governed by the age of superannuation rather than a fixed five-year term. An Additional District and Sessions Judge selected as Member (Judicial) contends that under the Court’s directions dated 20 March 2018, tenure should correspond to the age 62 for Members and 65 for Presidents, preventing termination before reaching superannuation. The five-year tenure would be inappropriate if it expires before 62. The applicant urged reiteration of the ITAT clarifications for CESTAT to ensure uniform application and to avoid arbitrary terminations.

Contentions of Respondents

The respondents urged adherence to the existing statutory framework governing Tribunals and sought consistency with ITAT guidelines. They argued for a uniform approach across tribunals, including the need to address vacancies and the selection process, and supported the government’s obligation to provide a status report within a stipulated period.

Extracted Judgment Text

Exact text extracted from official judgment records.

956 SUPREME COURT REPORTS[2018] 10 S.C.R. 956 [2018] 10 S.C.R. A ## KUDRAT SANDHU v. ## UNION OF INDIA AND ANR. (Writ Petition (C) No. 279 of 2017) B ## AUGUST 21, 2018 ## **[DIPAK MISRA, CJI, A. M. KHANWILKAR AND DR. D. Y. CHANDRACHUD, JJ.]** _Tribunal: Age of superannuation – CESTAT – Member (Judicial) – A person selected as Member of the CESTAT shall_ C _continue until the age of 62 years while a person holding the post of President shall continue until the age of 65 years._ _Tribunal: Age of superannuation – AFT – 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_ D _the Supreme Court shall hold office until the attainment of the age of 70 years._ _CAT: In the case of the Central Administrative Tribunal, the old rules/provisions shall continue to apply._ E CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (Civil) No. 279 of 2017 Under Article 32 of the Constitution of India ## WITH F W.P. (C) Nos. 558/2017, 561/2017, 640/2017, 1016/2017, 788/2017, 925/2017, 1098/2017, 1129/2017, 33/2018, 205/2018, 467/2018, T.C. (C) Nos. 49/2018 and 51/2018. K. K. Venugopal, AG, Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, AAG, Ashok Kumar Panda, Arvind P. Datar, Sidharth Luthra, Amarendra Sharan, Mrs. Prem Lata Bansal, Sr. Advs., Tejaswi Kumar Pradhan, Satyabrata Panda, G Manoranjan Paikaray, Aniruddha Purushotham, Shashwat Panda, Nikhil Nayyar, N. Sai Vinod, Dhananjay Baijal, Divyanshu Rai, Karan Batura, Ms. Anushree Prashit Kapadia, Arun Monga, Ms. Divya Sharma, Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, Ms. Ruchira Goel, Muhammad A. Khan, R. V. Prabhat, Abishek Jebraj, Nikhil Swami, Omar Hoda, A. K. Behera, H V. K. Verma, Mrs. Priya Hingorani, Kripa Shankar Prasad, Rupesh 956 KUDRAT SANDHU v. UNION OF INDIA AND ANR. 957 Kumar, Rajeev Sharma, Pravesh Bahuguna, Karbppaiah Meyyappan, A Anand Varma, Ms. Shubhanghi Jain, Ms. Manpreet Kaur, K. Krishna Kumar, Annam D. N. Rao, A. Venkatesh, Sudipto Sircar, Rahul Mishra, Ms. Diksha Rai, Ms. Palak Mahajan, R. Balasubramanian, S.S. Shamshery, Ms. Rukhmani Bobde, Harish V.Shekhar, Ms. Shradha Deshmukh, Rohit Bhat, Ms. Aarti Sharma, Santosh Kr. Vishwakarma, B Arvind Kumar Sharma, G. S. Makker, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Mrs. Anil Katiyar, Vishnu B.Saharya, Viresh B. Saharya (for M/s Saharya & Co.), Jagjit Singh Chhabra, Puspraj Singh, Ms. Chitrangda Rastravara, Ms .Smitakshi Talukdar, Rahul Jain, Zoheb Hossain, Ashok Mathur, Ajay Veer Singh Jain, Ms. Mamta Jain, Uday Ram Bokadia, Ms. Divya Garg, Sonal Jain, Ajay Bansal, Gaurav Yadava, Mrs. Veena C Bansal, Nachiketa Joshi, Ms. Sucheta, Ujjaval Kumar, Advs. for the appearing parties. A The Judgment of the Court was delivered by **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;” D E 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 F G H 958 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2018] 10 S.C.R. - A 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 - B 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, - C 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 D 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:** - E 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. F Devika Gujral IA disposed of. G H