Technical Member of NCLT Chandigarh Bench-II refuses to attend court

The President of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday temporarily reconstituted the Chandigarh Bench-II days after the Technical Member Umesh Kumar Shukla allegedly refused to attend the Court..In an order passed today, the NCLT Registrar Naveen Kumar Kashyap said the Chandigarh Bench-II "will be conducted by" Member (Judicial) Dr PSN Prasad along with Member (Technical) Satya Ranjan Prasad, who is otherwise from NCLT’s Guwahati Bench.“However, Hon’ble Member (T) Shri Umesh Kumar Shukla will clear all pending cases which are already reserved,” the order states. .The development comes just days after Shukla allegedly refused to attend the court. PSN Prasad in all the cases listed on April 19 passed the following common order,“Since the Member (Technical) is not present at the time of the hearing of the matter and also refused to attend the Court, with the consent of both the counsels, this matter is adjourned to 24.04.2024.”. Pertinently, the NCLT President in February had to withdraw all cases from the bench of PSN Prasad and Shukla after a video showing them engaging in a heated exchange had gone viral on social media. It was only recently that the Prasad and Shukla were asked to resume hearing the cases of Bench II at Chandigarh. While the regular bench was expected to resume proceedings from April 8, the official record shows Shukla went on leave from that day till April 10. After that, Prasad went on leave from April 15 to April 18. It was on April 19 that Prasad and Shukla were expected to resume hearing matters as part of their bench but the latter allegedly refused to attend the Court..The differences between the two members had become public in February when Bar & Bench had published a report about a viral video showing Prasad and Shukla argue over how the latter conducts the cases."What is this? Everyday you are doing this. There should be some limit. You can’t do this everyday. I am tolerating you to a large extent,” Prasad was seen telling Shukla in the 3 minute and 22 second-long video.A lawyer who had witnessed the exchange between the two members had then told Bar and Bench that the two members would have frequent disagreements..After the heated exchange between the two members was widely followed up in media, the NCLT President had transferred all pending cases of Bench-II to the other bench at Chandigarh. In absence of the Bench II, the work at the Chandigarh NCLT Bench had remained badly affected since February. .[Read Order]