Supreme Court Strikes Down Amended Finance Act 2017 Rules On Tribunals

The Supreme Court on Wednesday negated rules in the amended Finance Act 2017 on tribunals and directed the central government to bring in new norms for the appointment of tribunal members. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the Union Law Ministry to study the impact and furnish their report before the court.

The top court said that the appointment in tribunals "should be in accordance with respective statutes."

As per the the Financ Act 2017, makes requirement for unique identification Aadhaar registration mandatory and prohibits cash payments above a certain payment.

The Act has also merged quasi judicial tribunals, restructured the appointment of members to certain judicial tribunals and amended the rules on the funding of political parties.

The amended Act had merged the Competition Appellate Tribunal with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, while the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority Appellate Tribunal and the Cyber Appellate Tribunal were merged with the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.