Best of BS Opinion: NCLT courts must fix institutional gaps

From tribunal capacity and procedural certainty to tanker seizures that could hit India's economy, today's Best of BS Opinion also looks at Budget-impact laws, AI agents, and a book on sanctions

Hello and welcome to Best of BS Opinion, our daily wrap of the day's Opinion page.  The Ministry of Corporate Affairs wants another 50 National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) courts and two more National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) benches, highlighting a structural weakness, notes our first editorial. The NCLT was meant to administer company law matters, but was later asked to also adjudicate insolvency cases under the IBC without a matching expansion in capacity, infrastructure or support staff. However, merely adding Benches will not suffice; adequate courtrooms, trained members, supporting staff, and administrative infrastructure, along with technology-enabled case management are also a must, as is procedural certainty. Institutional gaps must be addressed in tandem with legislative changes.  The Trump Administration’s seizure of 'sanctioned' oil tankers linked to Venezuela in international waters raises questions about the ethics of Washington’s global leadership. President Donald Trump’s assertion that such oil could be sold or added to US strategic reserves adds an element of amorality to US' actions. These actions in the Caribbean threaten India’s energy security, too, since Indian refiners have been buying heavy crude from Venezuela since 2024. Moreover, ONGC Videsh, which has a 40 per cent stake in a heavy oil joint venture and an 11 per cent stake in another oil field, has around $600 million stuck in Venezuela. It is unclear if India can get the US to waive the release of these funds. If the US continues its chase-and-seize policy across the globe, the consequences for the Indian economy could be adverse.  Three bills passed in the recently-concluded winter session of Parliament - the Health Security Se National Security Cess Act, the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, and the Securities Markets Code - are likely to impact the Union Budget due early next year, writes A K Bhattacharya. The first envisages a new cess of tobacco products once the GST Compensation Cess, which was shared with states, is paid down in December, but the key difference is that the new cess will accrue only to the Centre, swelling the Union government's coffers. The second law cuts the expenditure burden share for the Centre to 60 per cent, while raising states' to 40 per cent, reducing the Union government’s financial burden by about a third. The third has several reform initiatives, but also provides for a transfer of resources from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), similar to what the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does. The three legislative efforts have the potential of becoming a steady additional source of revenue for the Centre in the future, despite two of them being at the cost of states.  As artificial intelligence (AI) enters daily life and becomes a public priority, India must bring the same clarity of purpose as Aadhaar and UPI, writes Jayant Sinha. Every Indian, he says, should have access to a safe and reliable AI agent that can help them manage information, navigate services, and strengthen their ability to make decisions. But before that, AI agents must comply with India's privacy safeguards, operate within India’s content rules, be integrated with the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture, and be free of charge to every Indian with no advertising clutter. An inclusive agent architecture is compelling and would be transformative at a population scale.  Economic sanctions occupy the space between words and military actions, a space that has been seeing increasing activities in recent years, notes Urjit Patel in his new book The Great Sanctions Hack. In his review, Pradeep Srivastava notes that the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India is not shy about calling out hypocrisies in the literature on sanctions that are typically imposed and led by the US and the EU. He is equally blunt in taking multilateral institutions such as the G20, World Bank and the IMF to task. Patel's other analytical frameworks make the book a welcome addition to the literature on sanctions.