Madras High Court order on composition of tribunals

Chennai: The Madras HC has held that a bench of a tribunal, whether it is Central administrative tribunal, national green tribunal or any other tribunal, cannot be overloaded with more administrative members than the judicial members.

A division bench, comprising justices V. Ramasubramanian and P.R. Shivakumar, gave the ruling while allowing a petition from S. Manoharan, working as an engine fitter sk (skilled) in INS Kattabomman, naval base, challenging the order of CAT chairman, which constituted a full bench with one judicial member and two administrative members to adjudicate his case relating to his service.

Analysing scheme 5 (4) of the Administrative Tribunal Acts and proviso thereunder in the context of section 4 (4) [c] of the NGT Act and in the backdrop of the development in several cases, the bench said it will be clear that a bench of more than three members cannot be overloaded with administrative members. “We are of the considered view that in a bench of more than two members constituted by the chairperson of the administrative tribunal, the number of administrative members cannot exceed the number of judicial members,” the bench said.