Supreme Court Directs Ministry of Corporate Affairs To Complete The Process Of Filling Vacancies In NCLT & NCLAT Within Two Months
The Supreme Court today directed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to complete the process of re appointment of members of NCLT and NCLAT within a period of two months.
“Since the govt has already initiated the process, we trust & hope that the govt would expedite the process of re appointment. We direct the govt to complete the process at the earliest & not later than 2 months.”, bench of Justice(s) Hemant Gupta, LN Rao & SR Bhatt observed.
Senior Advocate AS Chandiokh appearing for the petitioners while requesting for re appointment of the members who were about to complete their tenure submitted that he had no objection with regards to the process of re appointment.
Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai appearing for Advocate Amrendra Singh requested for allowing the members who had completed their tenure to continue until the completion of re appointment process.
Learned Attorney General KK Venugopal apprised the Bench that the Chief Justice Of India as per the provision u/s 413 of the Companies Act, 2013 had already constituted a Committee to complete the process of re appointment of the members of NCLT and NCLAT.
The submissions were made in light of the plea which was filed by The National Company Law Tribunal and the Appellate Tribunal Bar Association seeking directions to:
- direct the Respondents to fill up the vacancies of Chairman, NCLAT and President, NCLT
- to direct the Respondents to issue appointment Letters to those who have already been selected and
- for a further direction to fill up all vacancies of Members, NCLT
The plea also pointed out that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has caused a delay in the entire selection process of the members for the NCLAT and NCLT. Emphasis was made on the fact that the entire recruitment process for the members of NCLAT & NCLT initiated during the year 2019 has been held up & that no new appointment of members have been made till date. It was also pointed out that several candidates for the post of members of the NCLT have not received their appointment letters from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
The Court on the last date of hearing had directed ASG Balbir Singh to take instructions on the following issues:
- With respect to the position of 2019 appointments
- The manner in which the process shall be expedited with regards to the new selection
- Considering re appointment of the present members without asking them to participate in the fresh selection process
Directions were also issued to expedite the process for filling up the remaining posts without any further delay and to consider Re-appointment of Members of NCLT who are about to retire at the earliest.
Case Title: National Company Law Tribunal And Appellate Tribunal Bar Association Through Its Secretary Versus Ministry Of Corporate Affairs And Ors.