NCLAT Entry Trouble: What the Delhi High Court told Home Ministry and CISF [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to look into the issues faced by lawyers in entering the premises of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in Delhi (NCLAT)..In a petition by NCLT Bar Association, a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar dealt with two aspects..The first issue addressed was regarding entry passes for lawyers to enter the premises. The initial grievance of the petitioner was that only “daily pass was being issued”..The petitioner had during the first hearing contended that advocates including Senior Advocates, other members of the Bar, and professionals and their staff were being compelled to spend a lot of time by standing in long queues for getting their entry passes; a process which involves them having to give their information and personal details every day along with showing their identification document..Subsequently, the Ministry of Home Affairs started accepting online applications for temporary passes. Senior Advocate AS Chandhiok, appearing for the petitioner also informed the Court of the same but showed that the pass was only for a temporary period, in his case till November 2018..The Court noted the same while expressing its disapproval of the short period for which such passes were being issued..“There does not appear any reasonable justification for issuing such a short tenure pass…….The procedure followed by the Ministry of Home Affairs requiring the online applications may be justified. However, fixation of tenure does not appear to be based on any reasoning.” .The court was, however, informed that the grievances urged by the petitioner in this regard are being considered. The Court, therefore, stated that pending the consideration of the issue by the Home Ministry, online applications can continue..The second issue considered was regarding ingress and egress of vehicles of lawyers and parking of those vehicles..The court noted that while parking would be subject to availability of space, entry of vehicles with valid passes for ferrying lawyers to the premises should be allowed..For dealing with the same, the court allowed CISF to be made a party to the proceedings and issued a notice to CISF..The CISF will now have to respond on grant of entry passes to the vehicles of those persons who are issued entry passes by Home Ministry..The matter will now be heard on June 15..Senior Advocates, AS Chandhiok, Kirti Uppal, Ramji Srinivasan, Abhinav Vashisht and UK Chaudhary along with advocate Shikhil Suri, appeared for the Bar Association..Read the order below.