Lok Sabha passes Bill establishing National Tribunals Commission for appointments

Tribunals in India occupy a unique constitutional and institutional space — they are quasi-judicial bodies created by statute to adjudicate specialised disputes, relieving the regular court system of technical and high-volume litigation. Their constitutional basis lies in Articles 323A and 323B, inserted by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment (1976), which authorised Parliament and state legislatures to establish administrative and other tribunals. Over the decades, a proliferation of tribunals — covering income tax, customs, armed forces, company law, environment, and more — created a fragmented landscape with inconsistent appointment processes, varying service conditions, and contested independence from executive control.

The central tension in tribunal governance has always been the separation of powers: tribunals exercise judicial functions, yet their members are appointed by the executive, their salaries are determined by the government, and their tenures have historically been subject to executive discretion. The Supreme Court has intervened repeatedly to protect the functional independence of tribunals, most notably in the L. Chandra Kumar case (1997), which held that tribunals cannot oust the jurisdiction of High Courts, and in a series of rulings striking down executive-heavy appointment mechanisms as violating judicial independence.

The Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 was the most recent legislative attempt to consolidate tribunal administration. However, the Supreme Court struck down several of its provisions — particularly those setting short tenures and giving the executive disproportionate control over appointments — as contrary to the principles of separation of powers and inconsistent with earlier constitutional benchmarks the court had itself laid down.