The Bombay High Court in a writ petition filed in relation to e-filing under NCLAT and establishing circuit bench of NCLAT in Mumbai issued a notice on 11 January 2021 to NCLAT and Ministry of Corporate Affairs returnable on 1 February 2021.
Background
Advocate Nicky Pokar had filed a petition on 24 December 2020, before the Bombay High Court, seeking directions to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) for doing away with physical filing and instead enabling the e-filing of appeal and applications, so that lawyers and litigants outside Delhi are not disadvantaged in any way.
NCLAT on 4 January 2021 had enabled the e-filing process but their Standard Operating Procedure provided that in addition to an online filing, filing of hard copy by the appellant was mandatory. According to the petitioner, this served no fruitful purpose, and NCLAT, by way of exercising power embedded in its rules, could dispense with such a requirement, so that the
additional expenses and inconvenience could be avoided. Accordingly, Ms Pokar made a representation to the NCLAT.
The petition before the Bombay High Court sought directions to the Government of India for establishing a circuit bench of NCLAT in Mumbai, in terms of its assurance before the Supreme Court during the proceedings in the Swiss Ribbons case (REED 2019 SC 1304). Though a circuit bench of NCLAT has been established in Chennai, however, more than a year has passed, and no circuit bench has been established in Mumbai. The matter was listed for hearing on 11 January 2020, and Ms. Pokar was represented by Advocate Prakash Pandya and Advocate Pratik Sarkar, and upon hearing the advocates, the Bombay High Court was pleased to issue a notice to NCLAT and Ministry of Corporate Affairs returnable on 1 February 2021.
Petition and Order copies
A copy of the petition can be viewed below.
The details in this post were provided by Adv. Pratik Sarkar, Bombay High Court.
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