India runs a large parallel system of tribunals that decide tax disputes, debt recovery, environmental cases, company law matters and service disputes. The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 governed how their members were appointed and how long they served, and the Supreme Court repeatedly criticised that framework for leaving too much control with the executive. This Bill repeals the 2021 Act and rebuilds the system around an arm’s length body.
The centrepiece is a National Tribunals Commission. It selects candidates for tribunal appointments, assesses how tribunals are performing, inquires into complaints about members’ conduct and maintains a national database of tribunal work. The Commission is chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge or a former High Court Chief Justice, with two judicial members and two technical members drawn from fields requiring at least twenty five years of experience, each serving five years or until the age of seventy.
Appointments run through a search cum selection committee, and crucially the government must act on its recommendation within three months, which targets the long vacancies that have crippled several tribunals. Chairpersons and members serve five year terms with retirement ages of seventy and sixty seven, and reappointment turns on performance. Removal grounds cover insolvency, convictions involving moral turpitude, incapacity, abuse of position, conflict of interest and proven inefficiency.