SC strikes down provisions of Tribunal Reforms Act
POLITY – JUDICIARY
20 NOVEMBER 2025
- The Supreme Court struck down provisions of the Tribunal Reforms Act of 2021, a law designed to alter the tribunal system and give the Union government a dominant role in appointments and functioning, and even fixing the salaries of chairpersons and members.
- “When Parliament designs or alters the tribunal system, it must do so in a manner consistent with the constitutional requirements of independence, impartiality, and effective adjudication,” Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai, heading a two-judge Bench, observed.
- The Bench directed the Centre to establish the National Tribunal Commission in four months.
- It held that the commission was sorely needed as an “essential structural safeguard” to ensure independence, transparency, and uniformity in the functioning, appointment procedure, and administration of tribunals.
- The Chief Justice termed the 2021 law a “repackaged version” of the Tribunal Reforms (Rationalisation and Conditions of Service) Ordinance.
- The law was enacted just days after the ordinance was struck down by the Supreme Court in a July 2021 judgment.
- The Bench said that Parliament had “ignored” the defects that the court pointed out in the ordinance, and blithely transferred its provisions in a slightly altered form to the 2021 Act.
- Chief Justice Gavai dismissed the argument of the Union government, represented by Attorney-General R. Venkataramani, that Parliament had “discretion to ignore the decisions of the Supreme Court”.
- Noting that judicial review of laws is a basic feature of the Constitution, he said that by bringing the 2021 Act, Parliament and the Centre had brushed aside the supremacy of the Constitution.
- The verdict was based on a batch of petitions filed, among others, by the Madras Bar Association and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.
