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2011 (1) TMI 1082 - SC - Indian LawsTerm of service - Petitioner after completion of his five-year term was reappointed for another term of five years and was due to complete his second term of five years - response to an advertisement issued by the respondent regarding vacancies made application for the post of Judicial Member of the Tribunal, the post which he had held for nine and a half years at the time of making application refused for appointment for the vacancy, for the reason that the petitioner would complete his second term of 5 years as a Judicial Member of the Tribunal vide the impugned communication - main premise of the petitioner’s challenge of the said communication is that after completion of a tenure of 10 years, he is eligible to apply for the post afresh and must be considered on merits for his appointment as a Member of the Tribunal and should not be disqualified for appointment merely because he has completed 10 years in that office - Held that:- Plea that Section 10A, which restricts the total term of the Member of the Administrative Tribunal to ten years should be regarded as unconstitutional has also no substance at all. The age of retirement of a Government servant has been raised from 58 years to 60 years. Initially under the unamended provisions of the Act a retired Government servant had a tenure of only two years as a Member of the Tribunal and it was noticed that he was not able to contribute much while performing duties as a Member of the Tribunal. It was felt necessary that every Member of the Tribunal should have a tenure of five years. Therefore, the provisions relating to term of office incorporated in Section 8 of the Act were amended in the year 1987 and provision was made fixing term of office of Chairman, Vice-chairman and Members at five years period – statement made by learned senior counsel that we need to place our interpretation on the provisions of the Amended Act, which further principles of Judicial independence. Passage from the book, referred to by the learned senior counsel, pertains to the legal system in American Courts and Hybrid Tribunals, which has nothing to do with our legal system. Secondly, the statement relied on by the learned senior counsel is an extract from the book of a jurist, which has neither any persuasive value nor legal binding on us. If the suggestion made by an American author suits our legal system, it is for the Legislature to take note of it, “the doctrine of ‘independence of judiciary’ has nothing to do when the tenure is fixed by a statute”, no merit in this writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, Petition dismissed
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