CJI-led committee should appoint tribunal heads: Law panel

A committee headed by the Chief Justice of India should be set up to appoint chairperson and vice chairperson of central tribunals to provide greater independence to such bodies, the Law Commission recommended today.
In a report submitted to the law ministry, the law panel also said vesting of administrative control of tribunals to various departments and ministries make the bodies subservient to the executive, whose dispute they are deciding.
It recommended that all central tribunals should be under the law ministry which should be made the nodal agency.
The Commission said that a selection committee, headed by the Chief Justice of India or a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, as his nominee and comprising two nominees of the central government not below the rank of secretary should be be set up for appointment of chairman, vice-chairman and judicial members of a tribunal.

For selection of administrative member, accountant member, technical member, expert member or revenue member, a selection committee headed by the nominee of the central government should be appointed in consultation with the CJI.
It pointed that the selection committee should not be headed by a secretary level officer "for the reason that the central government is a party to every litigation before such tribunal".
It said reappointment of chairman and others compromises the independence and fairness of the tribunal.
"One may be inclined to decide matters in a manner that would ensure their reappointment," it said.