E-Paper
NCLT tenures: Only 8 met criteria, Centre tells Supreme Court
The 31-page affidavit, reviewed by HT, revealed that the decision to extend the tenures of eight out of 23 NCLT members was taken after the CJI-led panel left it to government to take “appropriate action in the matter”.
The Union government granted a two-year extension to only eight of the 23 members who were scheduled to retire from various benches of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) by the next month because the remaining 15 failed to meet the criteria of good character, antecedents, work performance and suitability, an affidavit filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court on Friday disclosed.
The affidavit was filed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs a day after the top court directed the government to make public the decision taken by the committee headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana on the issue of extending the three-year tenures of 23 members of NCLT to five years.
The 31-page affidavit, reviewed by HT, revealed that the decision to extend the tenures of eight out of 23 NCLT members was taken after the CJI-led panel left it to government to take “appropriate action in the matter”.
On June 6, the affidavit stated, the four-member panel, which also comprised another Supreme Court judge, justice Surya Kant, noted that “there is no express provision in the rules, which empowers the committee to consider the issue of revision of the term of office of members, NCLT”, asking the government to decide the issue of extending the tenure.
The panel’s mandate to let the government take a call came on June 6, even as in the previous meeting that was held on April 22, the CJI-led panel resolved that the report to be submitted by NCLT president on antecedents, work performance etc. of the 23 NCLT members will be placed before the panel for consideration in its next meeting.
In the June 6 meeting, the panel recorded: “Considering the sensitive nature of functions and duties, verification reports of members with regard to their character and antecedents and the report on the work performance and suitability, the committee is of the view that Government may take appropriate action in the matter.”
The committee further noted that there was no express provision in the Rules governing the selection of NCLT members, which empowered the Committee to consider the issue of revising the term of office of members of NCLT from three to five years.
Having got the go ahead from the committee, the Centre issued a notification on June 14 revising the tenure of two judicial members and six technical members from their original term of three years to five years.
The Centre objected to the petition by NCLT Bar espousing the cause of the 23 members, stating that the tenure of appointment of some individuals can never be a subject matter of public interest litigation. It said, “When the affected persons and all others dealing with the subject matter have understood the tenure to be three years, no one else can file a petition seeking the said tenure of 3 years to be treated as five years.”
The Centre stated that the petition was not maintainable as the affected persons have consciously accepted the tenure prescribed in their appointment orders of September 2019 by choosing not to initiate any proceedings.
The Centre assured the bench that the fear of the petitioner over the functioning of the NCLT being affected due to the large number of vacancies is “completely misplaced” as the Selection Committee will be holding personal interaction with the candidates to be appointed for the 15 vacant posts from June 20.
NCLT came into existence in 2016 with a total sanctioned strength of 63 members across 28 benches. According to the petitioner, only 19 benches are functioning with full strength. A total of 21,259 cases were pending before the NCLTs as on December 31, 2020.
