NCLAT has powers to recall its judgments: Five-member NCLAT bench

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has held that it has the power to recall its judgements [Union Bank of India (Erstwhile Corporation Bank) v Dinkar T Venkatasubramanian & Ors]..The NCLAT said that power to recall judgements is part of its inherent powers under Rule 11 of NCLAT Rules, 2016.A five-member Bench of NCLAT Chairperson, Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain (Member Judicial), Justice Rakesh Kumar (Member Judicial), Dr Alok Srivastava (Member Technical) and Barun Mitra (Member Technical) pronounced the verdict on May 25.It overturned the two judgments delivered by three member benches which held that held that NCLAT does not have the power to review or recall its judgements..The five-member Bench said that judgements of three-member benches did not lay down the correct law and while it is true that the NCLAT lacks power to review its judgements, it does have the power to recall them.“The power to review is not conferred upon this Tribunal but power to recall its judgment is inherent in this Tribunal since inherent power of the Tribunal are preserved, powers which are inherent in the Tribunal as has been declared by Rule 11 of the NCLAT Rules, 2016. Power of recall is not power of the Tribunal to rehear the case to find out any apparent error in the judgment which is the scope of a review of a judgment,” the NCLAT said.Such power of recall of judgment can be exercised when any procedural error has been committed while delivering the earlier judgment, the NCLAT said.“Power of recall of a judgment can be exercised by this Tribunal when any procedural error is committed in delivering the earlier judgment; for example; necessary party has not been served or necessary party was not before the Tribunal when judgment was delivered adverse to a party. There may be other grounds for recall of a judgment. Well known ground on which a judgment can always be recalled by a Court is ground of fraud played on the Court in obtaining judgment from the Court.”.The NCLAT was dealing with a case related to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) initiated by Union Bank of India against Corporate Debtor Amtek Auto Limited.The bank had filed a recall application seeking recall of the order passed by the NCLAT on January 27. When this came up for hearing before a three-member Bench, the respondents raised objections to its maintainability.They relied on the judgments passed by the NCLAT in the cases of Agarwal Coal Corporation Private Limited V Sun Paper Mill Limited & Anr and Rajendra Mulchand Varma & Ors Vs KLJ Resources Ltd & Anr..After considering both the cases, the five-member Bench held that these judgements do not lay down the correct law..Additional Solicitor General (ASG) N Venkataraman with advocates Sanjay Kapoor, Megha Karnwal, Surya Prakash, Arjun Bhatia, Devesh Dubey, V Chandrashekhar Bharathi, Amrita Chandramouli, Shruthi Shivkumar, Rahul Vijay Kumar, Advocates for the applicant.Attorney General R Venkataramani along with advocates Alok Kumar, Abhinav Shukla, Kunal Arora, Raman Yadav, Abhishek Pandey appeared for Respondent 1 (Union Bank of India).Advocates Sumant Batra, Sanjay Bhatt and Ruchi Goyal appeared for the Resolution Professional (RP)..[Read Order]