Supreme Court extends term of NCLT acting President, BSV Prakash Kumar till appointment of a regular President

The Supreme Court today extended the term of BSV Prakash Kumar as the acting President of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Delhi until the appointment of a regular president after concerns were raised that delays in the extension of his term was hampering the functioning of the NCLT..The Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi has ordered:."... we extend the appointment of Mr.B.S.V.Prakash Kumar, Member (Judicial) as acting President of NCLT, New Delhi till regular appointment is made to the post of President, NCLT Delhi.".The Court also took on record Attorney General KK Venugopal's submission that a request has been made to the Chief Justice of India for the nomination of a suitable candidate to be appointed the next NCLT president. .Kumar was appointed the acting NCLT President after its first President, Justice (retd.) MM Kumar retired from the position on January 4, 2020..Kumar's stipulated three-month term as acting President had ended on April 5 this year, following which it was extended from time to time for limited periods. .The Supreme Court was, however, moved for a less stop-gap solution by the National Company Law Tribunal and Appellate Tribunal Bar Association after delays in notifying the extension of Kumar's term began to interfere with the NCLT's functioning in the recent months. ."... the Principal Bench of the Honble NCLT could not preside for a total of fifteen days ... from July 2020 to October 2020, which has adversely hampered and caused immense prejudice to the rights/interests of the litigants, the entire process of justice delivery system and has adversely affected the smooth functioning of Honble NCLT", reads the Association's plea. .The Association had urged the top court to either extend Prakash Kumar's term till a regular president is appointed on a permanent basis or to extend his term for a reasonable period. .Senior Advocates AS Chandhiok and Virender Ganda and Advocates Satyajit A Desai, Vipul Ganda, Satya Kam Sharma, Anagha S Desai, Aastha Trivedi, Guresha Bhambra, Ritesh Kumar and Tejasvi Chaudhry represented the petitioner- association..Attorney General KK Venugopal and Advocates Chinmayee Chandra and Arvind Kumar Sharma represented the respondent-authorities. .Read the order: