Bar association cannot decide tenure of tribunal members: Supreme Court declines plea to extend tenure of 23 NCLT members

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea by NCLT Bar Association seeking extension of tenure of 23 members of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) who were appointed for a term of three years on September 20, 2019 [NCLT Bar Association vs Union of India]..The top court said that "the bar association cannot have a choice in which members should be there in the tribunal and for how long."The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Sudhanshu Dhulia noted that such a request cannot be entertained in the face of two supervening instances, namely:1. For the first tranche of 15 vacancies, the appointments by the Union Cabinet will be finalised within four to six weeks2. For the second tranche of 15 vacancies, the Search-cum-Selection committee headed by a Supreme Court judge has issued an advertisement and the last date of sending applications is by August 15.The NCLT Bar Association had challenged the Central government's notification fixing the term of 23 NCLT members appointed in 2019 as 3 years instead of 5 years.However, the top court noted that any order passed by it at this stage would interfere with the ongoing selection process.."We are of the view that the appropriate course of action would be to allow the selection process to continue so that it can be concluded soon. Only point which can be stated is that vacancies should be filled expeditiously," the Court said. .The Supreme Court further noted that the bar association cannot have a choice in which members should be there in the tribunal and for how long. However, going forward the Centre shall adhere to Section 413 of companies act with respect to tenure of such members, the bench added.."When the September 2019 notification was brought to notice, Centre had extended the tenure of 2 judicial and 6 technical members to 5 years," the court noted. .The Court noted that out of the 23 members scheduled to retire from various benches of the NCLT, the Centre had extended the tenure of 2 judicial and 6 technical members to 5 years.The Centre stated that it granted a two-year extension to only eight of the 23 members because the remaining 15 failed to meet the criteria of good character, antecedents, work performance and suitability.The Centre had stated that the bar association’s petition was not maintainable as the affected persons had consciously accepted the tenure prescribed in their appointment orders of September 2019 by choosing not to initiate any proceedings.The Court accepted the same and turned down the plea..[Read Live Thread]