The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down in entirety the rules framed under Section 184 of the Finance Act, 2017 and ordered the central government to reframe the rules. Further, the court has referred the plea challenging the constitutional validity of classifying the Finance Act, 2017 as a money bill to a larger bench.

The verdict was delivered by a five-judge bench comprising of the chief justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices NV Ramana, DY Chandrachud, Deepak Gupta, and Sanjiv Khanna.

The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to redraft the rules governing the appointment of appellate Tribunal judges. It has also directed the law ministry to conduct a judicial impact assessment of merger of tribunals.

In April, a bench led by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi reserved its judgment on a number of petitions that challenged the Constitutional validity of the Finance, Act 2017 arguing that it was passed by Parliament as a money bill.

One of the pleas alleged that the Centre was taking over the rights to decide the terms and conditions of tribunal members.

The Centre, however, had contended that the Finance Act 2017 was referred to as a money bill as it had provisions to deal with salaries and allowance to be paid to members of all tribunals.

Under the Finance Act 2017, the government had merged eight tribunals with existing tribunals listed as follows:

Under Finance Act 2017:

Competition Appellate Tribunal merged with NCLAT

Cyber Appellate Tribunal merged with TDSAT

Airports Economic ReguLatory Authority Appelate Tribunal merged with TDSAT

National Highways Tribunal Merged with Airport Apellate Tribunal

Appelate Tribunal for Forex merged with Apleate Tribunal under the SFEM Act

Railway Rate Tribunal merged with Railway Claims Tribunal

Copyright Board merged with the IPAB

EPF Appelate Tribunal merged with Industrial Tribunal

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First Published:Nov 13, 2019 2:50 PM IST