A senior technical member of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Kaushalendra Kumar Singh, has filed a plea before the Delhi High Court challenging the appointment of judicial member Bachu Venkat Balaram Das as the Acting President of the NCLT [Kaushalendra Kumar Singh v. Union of India and ors.].

A Division Bench comprising Justice Harish Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla today sought a response from the Central government and Das in the matter.

Central Government Standing Counsel, Nishant Gautam, accepted notice on behalf of the Union of India.

The office of the NCLT President had fallen vacant in February this year following the retirement of Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar on February 13. Judicial Member Deep Chandra Joshi was thereafter appointed the Acting President. Joshi's term ended on March 16.

Singh has argued that following Joshi's retirement, he is presently the senior-most NCLT member. As such, he argues that he should have been appointed the next Acting NCLT President. In this regard, he points out that the relevant rules call for the appointment of the senior-most NCLT member to serve in this post until a regular NCLT President is appointed.

However, on March 16, the Central government notified the appointment of judicial member BV Balaram Das as the next Acting NCLT President. Singh has pointed out that Das is technically junior to him, since Singh joined the NCLT on October 1, 2021, whereas Das only joined the office on October 18, 2021.

Singh has contended that the Central government's decision to bypass him and appoint judicial member Das as the NCLT Acting President violates the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.

Singh has highlighted that under Section 405 of the Companies Act, 2013, a "member" refers to both judicial and technical members.

"Consequently, the term ‘senior-most Member’ (who should be appointed Acting NCLT President, as per Section 415) upon vacancy in the office of President of NCLT would certainly mean the Member who is ‘senior-most’ whether Judicial, or Technical," Singh's plea argues.

Singh has, therefore, urged the Court to quash the Centre's March 16 notification appointing Das as the NCLT Acting President. The plea further seeks a direction to permit Singh to be appointed the NCLT Acting President, given that he is the senior-most NCLT member at present.

The petition was filed through advocate Prakhar Srivastav.