Fixed tenure for tribunal members: Parl panel finds Bill 'half

A parliamentary committee has described as "half-baked" a Bill which seeks to bring uniformity in the tenure, allowances and retirement age of chairpersons and members of the various tribunals.
The Tribunals, Appellate Tribunals and Other Authorities (Conditions of Service) Bill, 2014, was brought by the previous UPA government in the fag end of its term and was referred to the Parliamentary Standing committee on Law and Personnel.
The Bill provides for a uniform tenure of a maximum of five years for chairpersons and members of tribunals. But they are to have varied retirement ages of 70 years for a Supreme Court judge and 67 years for a high court judge.

A retirement age of 65 has been proposed for those who join tribunals from the administrative side.
In its report tabled in Parliament today, the committee said the Bill was "at best only a half-baked attempt to bring uniformity in various aspects of the tribunals constituted under different Acts... The Bill, the committee feels, sadly lacks in providing a blueprint for an independent and efficient functioning of tribunals".
As of now, some tribunals have a three-year tenure for retired judges while others provide for five-year terms. According to a Law Commission report, over 20 Acts administered by the various Union ministries govern the functioning of hundreds of tribunals in the country.

The Bill, based on the recommendations of a Group of Ministers, is intended to be an overarching legislation for the various laws governing the tribunals with regard to uniformity of tenure and service conditions.