Delhi HC asks Ministry of Corporate Affairs to look for alternate premises to house NCLAT, NCLT

With the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) refusing to remedy the problems faced by Lawyers as well as litigants at the National Company Law Tribunal and National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, the Delhi High Court has asked the MCA to look for other available premises to house the two Tribunals..“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, we deem it appropriate to consider the question and consider the possibility of shifting the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal from the existing complex to another suitable place, so that the difficulty faced by the Lawyers and Litigants and others concerned, which is the subject matter of this writ petition, are ruled out“..A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V Kameswar Rao was hearing a plea by the National Company Law Tribunal and Appellate Tribunal Bar Association and the NCLT Bar Association seeking relief with respect to the day-to-day struggle faced by the litigants as well as advocates to secure an entry into the premises that houses the NCLT and NCLAT..After the Ministry of Corporate Affairs informed that it was “in touch” with the Ministry of Urban Development to explore the “possibility of shifting” the two Tribunals from the existing premises to another suitable place, the Court has asked MCA to file a status report in the matter after its deliberations with the concerned Ministries, before the next date of hearing..The two Tribunals are situated inside the CGO complex, in two separate buildings. Entry inside the Complex is controlled by the MHA..Currently, lawyers, support staff as well as litigants can secure an entry into the building that houses NCLAT through a daily-entry pass. Lawyers can, however, apply for an identity card issued by the MHA. The card is valid for a period of one year. Movement of vehicles inside the Complex is also restricted, and it faces severe parking issues due to shortage of space..Therefore, the two Associations not only sought an unhindered entry into the buildings where the NCLT and NCLAT are situated, by just showing their Bar Council identity cards, but also raised concerns over the Tribunals’ poor infrastructure facilities..Subsequently, the Court had set up a Committee to come up with a solution..In its meeting held in October this year, the Committee headed by MHA Joint Secretary “felt” that “the challenges of security in respect of Government buildings and installations have increased manifold over a time and there should be strict regulation of entry into the buildings under MHA security cover.”.The Committee found that the lawyers, not being permanent to a particular case, can be replaced by other lawyers in a case. Therefore, they are actually visitors in the building, who would require an entry pass to enter into the Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Antyodaya Bhawan where NCLAT is situated..The Committee further noted that “nearly 1500 non-official MHA entry passes are issued/renewed annually” through a hassle-free process..It thus opined that the validity of MHA I-Card to lawyers for one year was justifiable and was necessary for security reasons..Stating that the architectural drawings were prepared and approved in consultation with the then Chairman was Company Law Board, the MCA has opined that “it may not be possible to carry out any changes to take care of issues, like size of Court rooms, inappropriate sitting area, inadequate space for Registry etc.”.“Both NCLT/NCLAT are tribunals and deal with specific cases. They are not like High Courts where all kinds of cases are filed. Hence, it may not be possible to provide any space for professionals to build chambers. Also, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has repeatedly indicated acute shortage of general pool office accommodation in Delhi.” it has further remarked..The Petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate Amarjit Chandiok with Advocates Vipul Ganda, Rakesh Kumar, Abhishek Sharma, Ramya and Anand Singh. The Advocates were briefed by LinkLegal India Law Services..The matter would be next heard on January 11..Read the order below:.Read the Minutes of the Committee’s Meeting below:.Read the Remarks by MCA below: