New Delhi, 12 September
The government has appointed 31 people as judicial, technical and accountants members in NCLT and ITAT amid concerns about vacancies in various tribunals by the Supreme Court.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) mainly deals with matters related to company law and insolvency law, while the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) deals with income tax matters.
The appointments come at a time when the Supreme Court has raised concerns, saying the Center is “deactivating” the tribunal by not appointing officers in quasi-judicial bodies facing shortage of staff.
Around 250 posts are lying vacant in various major tribunals and appellate tribunals like NCLT, DRT, TDSAT and SAT.
According to a separate letter issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on the basis of the decisions taken on September 11, 8 judicial and 10 technical members have been appointed in NCLT, while 13 judicial and 7 accountant members have been appointed in ITAT. . Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
Appointed Justice Telprolu Rajani of Andhra High Court, Justice Pradeep Narahari Deshmukh, Retired (Retd) Judge of Bombay High Court, Justice S Ramathilagam, retired Judge of Madras High Court and Justice Deep Chandra Joshi of District Court as Judicial Members of NCLT Gaya.
The others are DRT-3, Delhi, Presiding Officer Dharminder Singh, retired Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court Harnam Singh Thakur, retired District Court Judge P Mohan Raj of Principal District Court, Salem (Tamil Nadu) and advocate Rohit Kapoor.
The newly appointed technical members include Principal Commissioner of Income Tax Ajay Das Mehrotra, Retired NHPC CMD Balraj Joshi, Retired Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar, Retired Principal Director General of Income Tax Subrata Kumar Das, Retired Department of Consumer Affairs Secretary. Avinash. K Srivastava and Mr. Prakash Singh, retired Chief General Managers of SBI.
The other technical members are Chartered Accountant Sameer Kakkar, retired Director General of Income Tax Manoj Kumar Dubey, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax Kaushalendra Kumar Singh and Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax Anuradha Sanjay Bhatia.
The appointments will be for a period of five years from the date of joining the posts or till they attain the age of 65 years or till further orders.
Six judicial members have been appointed in ITAT. They are Advocates Sonjoy Sarma, S Sitalakshmi and TR Senthil Kumar, Additional District and Sessions Judges Shatin Goel and Anubhav Sharma, and Manohar Das, Law Officer in SBI.
In addition, seven accountants are members. They are Chartered Accountants Bhagirath Mal Biyani, Balakrishnan S, Jamiappa Dattatreya Battuli, Padmavati S, Arun Khodpiya, Rathod Kamlesh Jayantbhai and Commissioner of Income Tax (Reports) Deepak Pandurang.
The appointments in ITAT were made for a period of four years.
On September 6, the Supreme Court said the Center was testing its “patience” and “inactive” tribunals by not appointing officers in quasi-judicial bodies facing acute shortage of judicial and technical members along with presiding officers. Action was sought by 13 September
A special bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana asked the Center to make some appointments in tribunals before September 13, saying it did not want any conflict with the government.