Supreme Court Strikes Down Rules in Amended Finance Act 2017 on Tribunals

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi mandated that appointment in tribunals should be in accordance with respective statutes.

New Delhi: In a setback for the government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down rules in the amended Finance Act 2017 on tribunals, directing the Centre to reformulate fresh norms with respect to the appointment of tribunal members.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi mandated that appointment in tribunals should be in accordance with respective statutes.

Further, the Ministry of law has been asked to conduct an impact study and submit a report to the apex court.

The bench that delivered judgement includes Justices NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

Challenging the Finance Act, 2017, the petitioners had pleaded that passing of the Act as a Money Bill was “entirely inappropriate and amounted to a fraud on the Constitution”.

Money Bill contains provisions for imposition of taxes and appropriation of money out of the Consolidated Fund.