CAT collapsing due to vacancies: Supreme Court directs all incumbent members to continue in office (for now)

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that all incumbent judicial and administrative members of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) who are due to retire from their posts, should continue holding office till July 26. .The order was passed by a Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant after taking note of the fact that currently, there are only 29 members in CAT. The Tribunal was functioning with 34 vacancies, and more retirements could lead to its collapse, the Court said."How will the tribunal work if appointments are not made? The advertisement (for appointments) was in April 2022. So selection process will obviously take some time. Meanwhile, if the remaining 29 members who are working retire, then the tribunal will collapse. It has already collapsed," the Bench observed..If the remaining 29 members who are working retire, then the tribunal will collapse. It has already collapsed.Supreme Court on CAT .Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Balbir Singh said that the Central government has received 600 applications for the 34 posts, and assured the Court that the vacancies will be filled up by July.The Court, however, noted that further vacancies are due to occur on June 17 and June 30, 2022."If the Tribunal has to go on, we will exercise [Article] 142 power and say that that judges will go on working. We will say that until we take up the case again in July, the judges who are set to retire will continue till then," the Court remarked.It, therefore, proceeded to pass an order to that effect, directing all members to continue in their posts till July 26, when the matter will be heard next."Since vacancies will impinge upon citizens right to access to justice, thus we order that pending further order, incumbents holding posts as judicial or administrative member shall continue to function even after the completion of their tenure. This will be subject to members consent, availability. List on July 26. Order to apply till then," the order said.