Taking up a public interest litigation seeking directions for filling three posts of members in the Punjab Value-Added Tax (VAT) Tribunal here, the Punjab and Haryana high court has issued a notice of motion to the Punjab government.
With the three posts lying vacant, the tribunal is being run only by justice Harbans Lal (retd) as its chairman.
The petitioner, advocate HC Arora, informed the division bench comprising chief justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and justice Rakesh Kumar Jain that these vacancies should be filled only in consultation with the high court in view of the Supreme Court judgments in "SP Sampath Kumar vs Union of India" (1987) and "State of Gujarat and another vs Gujarat Revenue Tribunal Bar Association and another" (2012).
The court was informed that till date the state government had been making appointments in the tribunal without the high court's consent.
The case would now come up for hearing on April 3.