Appointments in Tribunals clearly indicates ‘cherry picking’ of names: SC to Centre

The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over non-filling of vacancies at the tribunals across the nation and said the manner in which appointments have been made clearly indicates “cherry picking” of names.

The top asked the Centre to make appointments within two weeks to the tribunals which are facing severe crunch of presiding officers as well as judicial and technical members, and apprise it of reasons if persons from the recommended list are left out in the process.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao said the condition is pitiable at the tribunals due to the vacancies and the litigants cannot be left in the lurch.

“The appointment letters which have been issued clearly indicate they have selected cherry picking three names from the select list and others from the waitlist, ignoring others in the select list. In service law, you can’t go to the waitlist ignoring the select list. What kind of selection and appointment is this?” the bench asked the Attorney General K K Venugopal.