Centre concedes in SC, permits Justice Cheema to stay till Sept 20

New Delhi: The row over premature retirement of former NCLAT Chairperson Justice Ashok Iqbal Singh Cheema ended in the Supreme Court on Thursday as the Centre conceded and permitted him to continue in office till September 20 to pronounce verdicts, following the warning that the new law on tribunals would be stayed suo motu.

The hearing over the premature superannuation of Justice Cheema once reached a point when the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana warned the Centre that the it would exercise its suo motu power to stay the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021, which was referred to by Attorney General K K Venugopal as empowering statute to retire the NCLAT head.

Justice Cheema, the former Chairperson of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), was to superannuate on September 20, but Justice M Venugopal was appointed as the acting head of the tribunal with effect from September 11, creating a peculiar situation where the former approached the top court.

However, later K K Venugopal, on instruction from the Centre, apprised the bench, also comprising justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, of the changed stand of the government leading to the closure of the row. I have taken instructions. It was said he (Cheema) took leave to write judgments. So we have decided that he will be allowed to go to office and pronounce judgments, the current chairperson Justice Venugopal will be sent on leave, he told the bench.

In its order, the top court noted the concession made by the Centre and said, Attorney General fairly states that respondent No.1 Union of India has no objection in accepting the prayer `C' made by the petitioner in the present writ petition and to allow the petitioner to work up to September 20, 2021 as the Officiating Chairperson, NCLAT, New Delhi to enable him to pronounce the judgments prepared by him.

The order recorded the prayer sought by Justice Cheema that he be allowed to remain in continuous service from September 11 to 20 as the Officiating Chairperson of NCLAT and be paid all service benefits accordingly.

Attorney General further submitted that after acceptance of prayer of Justice Cheema, consequential order will be passed by the Centre forthwith and the incumbent NCLAT chairperson (Justice Venugopal) will proceed on leave up to September 20, the order noted.

Taking note of the submissions advanced by the learned Attorney General for India, the writ petition stands disposed of in the above terms. We make it clear that the instant order has been passed taking into consideration the peculiar facts and circumstances of the present facts and this shall not be treated as a precedent. Consequent upon disposal of the writ petition, pending interlocutory application also stands disposed of, the bench said.

At the outset, the bench was informed by the top most law officer that the government wants him to concede on the retirement of Justice Cheema.

Then we will record it and close the case, the CJI observed.

However, the bench got irked after the Attorney General made further submissions that the reinstatement of Cheema from September 11 to 20 would be notional only to enable him to get retiral benefits sans actual powers of the office as it will be very awkward to remove the incumbent Justice Venugopal from the post.

Mr Attorney, tell us, how fair is it? He has some judgments to pronounce. If you retire him, there will be a problem of rehearing those cases. The way these orders were passed was also awkward. If your government thinks they want to stick to that then it's okay, the irked bench observed.

Moreover, the government has the power under the Tribunals Reforms Act to terminate the services, K K Venugopal said, adding that the termination letter was on the new law which overrides the apex court's judgement in the Roger Mathew case.

Then we will have to stay your (Centre's) legislation (The Tribunal Reforms Act), the CJI said. Let me take the instructions. It will be very awkward for us to remove a person. I am prepared to argue the stay petition also. The government has certain powers, the Attorney General said, and sought 30 minutes to get instructions.

When the matter was taken up again, the top most law officer informed about the changed stand of the government and said that Justice Cheema would be reinstated with all the powers as head of the NCLAT to pronounce pending judgements till September 20 and his predecessor would be asked to proceed on leave till then.

The top court recorded this in the order and closed the case and said, the Attorney General solved the problem. We thank you for this."