Govt appoints 31 members at NCLT, ITAT

NEW DELHI: The government has appointed 31 people as judicial, technical and accountant members at the NCLT and the ITAT, amid the Supreme Court flagging concerns about vacancies at various tribunals.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) deals with matters mainly related to companies law and insolvency law while Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) deals with income tax matters.

The appointments also come at a time when the Supreme Court has flagged concerns, saying the Centre was "emasculating" tribunals by not appointing officials to the quasijudicial bodies that are facing staff crunch. There are around 250 posts lying vacant at various key tribunals and appellate tribunals such as NCLT, DRT, TDSAT and SAT.

As many as 8 judicial and 10 technical members have been appointed to the NCLT while 13 judicial and accountant members have been appointed to the ITAT, according to separate communications issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on September 11 based on decisions taken by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet.

Andhra High Court Judge Justice Telaprolu Rajani, Bombay High Court Retired (Rtd) Judge Justice Pradeep Narhari Deshmukh, Madras High Court Retd Judge Justice S Ramathilagam and District Court Judge Deep Chandra Joshi are among those appointed as the judicial members to the NCLT.

Others are DRT-3, Delhi, Presiding Officer Dharminder Singh, Punjab and Haryana High Court Retd Registrar General Harnam Singh Thakur, Principal District Court, Salem (Tamil Nadu) Retd District Court Judge P Mohan Raj and Advocate Rohit Kapoor.