NCLAT BENCH AT CHENNAI

• The Hon’ble National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”) has established its new Bench at Chennai, Tamil Nadu vide a Notification of the Hon’ble NCLAT, Delhi dated 23.01.2021 under Notice No. 025/2021. The Notification states that filing of fresh Appeals against the Orders of the Benches of the National Company Law Tribunals having jurisdictions in the Southern States shall be made before the Chennai Bench of the NCLAT with effect from 25.01.2021.
• AMA has been filing multiple Appeals, Applications and Caveats at the NCLAT, Chennai since its inception and has been successful in doing so over the past month. The same has been possible only with the support of the NCLAT Registry at Chennai and their valuable inputs.
• Our experience on the procedures and filing at the NCLAT Registry has been summed up in a nutshell herein below for ease of understanding and reference:
  • The Appeal/Application/Caveat has to be compulsorily e-filed as per NCLAT guidelines provided for on the NCLAT website. A unique user ID and password is to be created by the counsel and used for e-filings in the NCLAT Website.
  • Once the e-filing along with necessary filing fees are deposited, hard copies are to be filed in the NCLAT Registry, Chennai.
  • A total of 4 copies of the Appeal/Application/Caveat have to be submitted to the Registry in either Green/White legal paper (we prefer green to be safe).
  • Hard copies shall be compulsorily in soft bound/paper book format adhering to the prescribed order of documents.
  • The copies shall be duly stamped (as acknowledgement) by the Registry. Out of the 4 copies, 3 copies will be retained by the NCLAT Registry and the 4th copy shall be returned to the counsel as acknowledgement of receipt.
  • The NCLAT Registry usually takes about 7-10 days (at present)to scrutinize the documents being submitted and mark defects, following which the counsel is intimated to make the necessary changes and re-submit the document.
  • After the process of scrutiny is complete, it takes anywhere between 2-4 weeks for the matters to be listed (depends on case to case).
• However, there have also been some other variable practices being followed with regards to filing. Some counsels have been instructed to file 3 copies instead of 4 copies and produce a cover letter to receive the stamp from the NCLAT Registry. Also, with respect to soft binding/making a paper book of the documents being filed, we are given to understand that few Appeals are being accepted if its side stitched, as per the practice in the NCLT’s. Nevertheless, the above mentioned steps have been successful for AMA.
• There are many updates been made in the NCLAT frequently, as recent as on 03.03.2021, the Hon’ble NCLAT, Delhi had brought out certain procedural changes to be followed regarding hearings via the virtual mode. It was notified that the Virtual Conference links shall be shared w.e.f. 04.03.2021 through registered Email ids as well as by SMS on registered mobile numbers of the Ld. Advocates/ Parties-in-person/ Authorized Representatives and not via Whatsapp had been the practice being done previously due to change in Government regulations on usage of Social Media Apps and OTT Platforms.
• Further the notification also states that Advocates/Parties-in-person/Authorized Representatives may send their appearance slip via email through their registered email ids only as per enclosed proforma provided for in the instant notification. The email is to be sent to the email id’s provided for in the notification by 10:15 AM on the day when the matter is listed.
• Secondly, with respect the sitting of the Chennai Bench of the Hon’ble NCLAT, the Tribunal has been hearing matters only through virtual mode and is usually sitting for about 4-5 days of the week. There is an average of 2 or 3 new Appeals being filed everyday at the NCLAT, Chennai among other applications and procedural filings. The constitution of the bench varies from time to time.
• Since the NCLAT Registry is relatively new and is just being set up, there are initial teething issues and ambiguities for fresh filings with respect to filings and procedure, which in the due course of time will be rectified and standardised.

We at Anant Merathia and Associates have been active in NCLAT filings and matters and have been supporting our counterparts from Hyderabad, Bangalore & Kochi (Chennai of course) on filing of appeals with reasonable on the ground experience to ensure that the prescribed and acceptable procedure is followed to the best of our ability.