NCLAT gets three new members; two members to join Chennai Bench soon

Two new judicial members and one technical member have been appointed to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), two of whom have been assigned matters pending before the Chennai Bench..Judicial members Justices Yogesh Khanna and Sharad Kumar Sharma and technical member Jatindranath Swain were sworn in at a ceremony held at the NCLAT Delhi on Monday, February 19..While Justice Khanna will hear matters pending before the principal bench of the NCLAT in Delhi, Justice Sharma and Swain have been assigned matters pending before the Chennai Bench..The new appointments come as succour for lawyers and litigants at the Chennai Bench, as until now, there was only one bench of judicial member Justice N Venugopal and technical member Shreesha Merla hearing matters. Merla retired from her post last month.The bench of Justice Venugopal and Merla used to hear matters from 10 AM to 1 PM through the hybrid mode via video conference, from Delhi and Chennai respectively..Following the new appointments, on Tuesday, a bench of three members - Justices Venugopal and Sharma and Swain - presided over matters from 10 AM to 1 PM. There were 44 matters listed in the causelist of which 10 matters were heard.Justice Venugopal then sat with technical member Ajai Das Mehrotra at 1:55 PM to pronounce orders in three matters.From 2 PM onwards, a single bench of technical member Naresh Salecha heard a group of matters pending hearing before the Chennai Bench..It is not known, however, whether the present arrangement of Justices Venugopal and Sharma and technical members Swain and Salecha being assigned matters before the Chennai Bench is a permanent one.NCLAT Registrar Peeyush Pandey said that the Chennai Bench will get dedicated members “soon”. Two members, “one judicial and one technical, will be moving to Chennai soon,” to begin hearing matters physically..Inadequate staff, infrastructure crippling NCLAT Chennai as lawyers contemplate moving court