The term of the commission expires on November 29. The commission's chairman GV Ramakrishna and members Suresh Tendulkar and Dipankar Basu had resigned last month.

With disinvestment not proceeding at a pace desired by the Government, the fate of the sell-off panel assumes considerable importance. An important issue is the charter of the commission. The statutory powers of the commission were stripped by the United Front government last year. A few months back, the Government had promised to restore the statutory powers of the Disinvestment Commission. But nothing had happened, mainly because of the elections.