The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought response of the Centre on a petition claiming the appointments of ‘technical members’ to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) as illegal.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice C. Hari Shankar asked the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and the technical members of NCLAT concerned to respond to the petition filed by an NGO.
The NGO, India Awake for Transparency, in its petition, 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 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.
It said the rules should never have come into force when nearly identical provisions under the rules were declared as unconstitutional. The High Court has listed the case for further hearing on May 1.