Tribunal Appointments
SC sets aside 25-yr svc rule for chartered accountants' tribunal appointment
This story was originally published at 13:59 IST on 20 November 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday set aside the requirement for chartered accountants to have an experience of at least 25 years to be considered for appointment as technical members of tribunals, including the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, terming the provision as unconstitutional.
"We are in agreement with the submissions made on behalf of the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India). If such a provision is held to be valid, it will permit the CAs (chartered accountants) to enter into service only after they attain the age of 50 years. We have already held that a similar provision may not be sustainable in the case of advocates. There should be no difficulty in applying the same analogy," said the bench led by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai. The court directed the Centre to keep this observation in mind while enacting a new law regarding appointment of tribunal members.
The top court's order came on a plea by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, which sought parity for chartered accountants with lawyers. The apex court Wednesday had struck down the requirement of minimum age of 50 years for advocates to be appointed as members of tribunals. Going by the requirement of having 25 years of practice, a chartered accountant would be entitled to be considered for appointment to a tribunal only after attaining the age of 50, said the petitioner on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had struck down provisions of the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 regarding the appointment, service conditions and tenure of tribunal members, as unconstitutional. These provisions violate the constitutional principles of separation of powers and judicial independence, which are firmly embedded in the text, structure, and spirit of the Constitution, said a bench led by Chief Justice Gavai.
"The minimum age bar of 50 years for all appointments, the truncated four-year tenure with upper age caps of 70/67, the requirement that the search-cum-selection committee forward a panel of two names for each vacancy, and the fixing of allowances and benefits to those of equivalent civil servants are all provisions which have already been judicially tested and struck down," the top court had said. The court has expressly held in earlier decisions that these measures are arbitrary, destructive of judicial independence, and amount to an impermissible legislative override of binding directions, said the bench, which also comprised Justice K. Vinod Chandran.
The court was hearing petitions by Madras Bar Association, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, and others who challenged the provisions of the 2021 Act. By diluting the judiciary's role in appointments, tenure, and service conditions of tribunal members, the provisions of the 2021 Act infringes on the basic structure and contravenes Articles 14, 21 and 50 of the Constitution, as well as binding decisions of the court, said the petitioners.
In 2020, the Supreme Court had struck down the Tribunal Rules 2020. In 2021, the top court had struck down the Tribunal Reforms Ordinance 2021. In these cases, the court had mandated that tribunal members should have at least a five-year tenure, and that lawyers with minimum 10 years of experience must be considered for appointments. However, through the 2021 Act, the tenure of members was reduced to four years and a minimum age limit of 50 years was introduced for the members. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Tanima Banerjee
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