New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Chairperson of the NCLAT to conduct an enquiry into the working of a bench of the appellate tribunal which allegedly defied an order of the apex court.
A bench, headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, said that the report prepared by the Chairperson of the NCLAT will specifically verify as to whether the order passed by the Supreme Court was drawn to the attention of the two-member bench of the appellate tribunal.
It said that it is passing the order in “extraordinary circumstances” where the two-member bench of the NCLAT proceeded to pronounce the judgment despite the clear mandate of the order passed by the Supreme Court asking the appellate tribunal to declare “its judgment in the pending appeal after it is duly apprised of the fact that the result of the Annual General Meeting has been declared”.
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and N.K. Kaul apprised the top court that the bench consisting of Rakesh Kumar and Dr Alok Srivastava of the NCLAT proceeded to deliver the order despite request made by the petitioner before the appellate tribunal to not deliver the judgment until the report of the scrutiniser is made available.
“If what is stated is correct, this will clearly constitute the defiance of the order of this Court by the NCLAT,” said the Supreme Court, noting that its order was uploaded at 1.55 pm while the scrutiniser’s report was stated to be uploaded at 2.40 pm.
It ordered that the enquiry report will be placed by NCLAT Chairperson before 5 pm on October 16 and posted the matter for further hearing on October 17.
–IANS