Delhi High Court Requests NCLAT Chairperson To Examine Viability Of Recording Of Proceedings Before NCLT Benches, NCLAT

The Delhi High Court has requested the Chairperson of National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to examine the viability of recording of proceedings of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) benches across the country as well as the former.

A division bench comprising Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice Amit Bansal disposed of a plea filed by Gujarat Operational Creditors Association seeking issuance of directions to have the proceedings carried out before the NCLTs and NCLAT recorded.

The court directed that the plea will be treated as a representation and granted liberty to the petitioner Association to place the same before the Chairperson of NCLAT.

“The Hon'ble Chairperson is requested to examine the viability of the directions sought in the writ petition concerning recordal of proceedings before NCLT benches and NCLAT which are articulated in the prayer clauses extracted hereinabove,” the court said while closing the matter.

The plea sought a direction on NCLT and NCLAT to activate the recording feature in the WebEx software used for conducting video- conferencing hearings, to retain the recordings for a period of 5 years, to provide a copy of the recording of hearings to any interested party and to provide officially-certified transcripts of the arguments.

The bench observed that since any decision will have an impact on all NCLT benches spread across the country as well as NCLAT, the best way forward would be that the plea is treated as a representation to be dealt with by the Chairperson.

The court said before directions as are issued, the matter would require inputs from Presidents of various NCLT benches to ascertain as to whether they have the necessary wherewithal for generation of transcripts and creation of storage and preservation facility.

However, the bench rejected the prayers regarding the manner in which judgments should be reserved, authored and dictated in the Tribunals in question.

“In our view, these prayers go much beyond the core issue raised in the writ petition. Therefore, in our opinion, they do not merit any consideration. The prayers mentioned in clauses (vii) to (xiii) are, hence, rejected,” the court said.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr Deepak Khosla, Advocate

Counsel for Respondents: Mr Rakesh Kumar, CGSC with Mr. Rajesh Sharma, AR, NCLT

Title: GUJARAT OPERATIONAL CREDITORS ASSOCIATION v. NATIONAL COMPANY LAW TRIBUNAL & ORS.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 765

Click here to read order