Tyagi and Bansal were given marching orders on October 5, while the fate of senior member Abdul Razak, who was transferred to Guwahati, hangs in balance.

While Tyagi managed to obtain the stay since he had not received the order, Bansal's plea was not accepted since he had already collected his orders. Both Bansal and Tyagi had taken over as members of the Tribunal only recently.

According to the rules of the Tribunal, which comes under the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, the members can be sacked without assigning any reasons if they have not completed a year in service. Abdul Razak had, however, already completed the stipulated term and was hence transferred.

The Tribunal hears cases in which the total amount underscrutiny by the Income Tax Department is over Rs 200 crore. Abdul Razak and Bansal dismissed the petition of V Bhaskaran, Sasikala Natarajan's nephew, to stay the proceedings in his case, while Tyagi refused a stay to K V Mahadevan, Natarajan's uncle.

Meanwhile, Bharadwaj Shankar and Mohan Rajan have been appointed to the Chennai bench of the Tribunal. While Shankar has been transferred from the Ahmedabad bench, Rajan has been brought from the Jabalpur bench.

The replacements too have become controversial, like that of the transfers and sacking of members, since Shankar is the son-in-law of Santhanam, a retired member of the Chennai Tribunal, and Rajan was the junior of former Attorney General of Tamil Nadu, Habibullah Basha, who has been representing former chief minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha.

Rajan has been assigned the `A' bench, which hears all the cases pertaining to the Sasikala group, which includes those of her nephews V Bhaskaran, T T V Dinakaran and V N Sudhagaran. Rajanwill sit along with another member, Kalsian. The `A' bench is also listed to hear the case pertaining to the gifts to the value of Rs three crore received by Jayalalitha when she was chief minister.

Rajan will also be on the `D' bench of the Tribunal along with Shankar. There are four benches in the Chennai Tribunal - `A', `B', `C' and `D'.

The `A' bench had not been constituted for the last six weeks prior to the orders transferring Abdul Razak and terminating Bansal and Tyagi.