What a mess! Supreme Court says tribunals have become liability, calls them government's headache

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the tribunals in the country have become a liability for the judiciary and are a headache even for the government.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi called for fresh measures to address the situation, as it flagged glaring issues with the functioning of tribunals.

It is not in the national interest that they are completely unaccountable at present, the Bench said.

"Tribunals were created by you (Central government). So it is your headache and a liability for us. Because now the kind of orders we are seeing, barring a few tribunals, these tribunals have become a no man's land. They are not accountable to anyone," CJI Kant told the Attorney General R Venkataramani

The Court had earlier asked the Central government to frame within four weeks a uniform proposal on the functioning of tribunals across the country, stressing that these bodies cannot be allowed to become defunct.

Today, the Court stressed that functional crisis in these institutions cannot be allowed to continue.

"In TDSAT, if the chairperson does not continue, then the technical member will take his place. Please ensure there is no functional crisis," CJI Kant said.

Justice Bagchi added a technical member alone cannot pass an order.

CJI Kant then revealed that a technical member of a tribunal has become infamous for outsourcing judgment writing. The Court warned that it will sack him at an appropriate time.

"There is one tribunal which has gained grave importance due to gravity of cases. The technical member in that tribunal is not writing a single judgment. He is asking judicial members to write or is outsourcing it! I am waiting. I will sack that member. What audacity. What mess have we created. In the over-anxiety of not taking much burden, we have created this," CJI Kant said.

CJI Kant went on to comment on the eligibility of the tribunal members and said a new system was needed to protect national interests.

"These judges don't learn any environmental law, commercial law etc. and in the 4 years they are expected to become experts. Perhaps a completely new mechanism is needed. The manner in which they are completely unaccountable is not in national interest," the CJI said.

In November 2025, the Bench of the then CJI BR Gavai and Justice Vinod Chandran had struck down the provisions of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 on appointment and tenure of tribunal members, for being violative of its earlier judgments on the issue.

The top court had said that the provisions earlier struck down by the Supreme Court had been reintroduced by the Union government with minor tweaks.

The Court had then directed the Union government to constitute a National Tribunals Commission within four months.

"The creation of such a commission is an essential structural safeguard designed to ensure independence, transparency, and uniformity in the appointment, administration, and functioning of tribunals across the country. The repeated judicial insistence on this body reflects the Court’s recognition that piecemeal reforms cannot remedy the systemic deficiencies that have persisted for decades," it had said.