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A Supreme Court bench of Justices J.K.Maheshwari and Hima Kohli today adjourned the plea moved by the National Company Law Tribunal Bar Association challenging the notification of the Corporate Affairs Ministry fixing the tenure of the members of the Tribunal as three years. The contention of the Bar Association is that the tenure should be a period of five years.

When the matter came up for hearing, Justice J.K.Maheshwari asked Solicitor General Mehta to file the documents that have been provided to the court for reference with an affidavit. The bench also asked the SG to supply a copy of the documents to the counsels for NCLT Bar Association. 

SG queried the court if it would be appropriate to serve documents that are before the court in a sealed cover to the counsels for the Bar association. The bench opined that they have gone through the documents and they are not so confidential that they cannot be served to the opposing counsel. The SG thus agreed to serve the documents to the other side.

Yesterday, the court was miffed by the fact that the counsel for the ministry of corporate affairs had not provided the court with sufficient copies of the documents that were being referred to by the Solicitor General. The SG had apologised to the same and had requested the court to adjourn the matter till today to enable him to file sufficient copies of the minutes. The bench had accordingly adjourned it to June 16, 2022 (Thursday) for further consideration.

Earlier the SG had informed the court that a committee chaired by the Chief Justice of India and consisting of Justice Surya Kant and the Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs held its meeting on April 20, 2022. The committee had considered the question regarding the tenure of 23 members of the National Company Law Tribunal of the 2019 batch.

The SG had argued that since the committee is already considering the issue, it would be appropriate for the matter to be heard after the deliberations.

The matter will now come up for hearing on Monday (June 20, 2022).

Case title: NCLT Bar Association Vs Union of India