HC seeks Centre's reply on plea over appointments of NCLAT technical members

The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought response of the Centre on a plea concerning the appointments of 'technical members' to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the concerned technical members of NCLAT on a petition filed by an NGO and listed the matter for further hearing on May 1.

The NGO, India Awake for Transparency, claimed that the appointment of all the technical members of the NCLAT was illegal.

It sought a direction to one of the newly appointed technical members to set out on what authority he/ she was holding office as technical member of the tribunal.

The NGO earlier filed a separate petition regarding legality of appointments of such members which is pending before the high court.

The latest plea said that pursuant to the Appellate Tribunal and other authorities (Qualifications, Experience and other conditions of service of members) Rules, 2017, the central government had issued notifications in January 2017 and May 2019, inviting applications from persons holding 25 years in law for appointment as technical members.

The NGO said the Rules should never have come into force when nearly identical provisions under the Rules were declared as unconstitutional.