NCLT Chandigarh to hear Haryana cases

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 10

The territorial jurisdiction to decide cases of companies with offices registered in Haryana has been shifted to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Chandigarh.

A notification in this regard has also been issued. The development is significant as all litigation pertaining to winding-up operations, mismanagement, merger, de-merger and sick industrial companies in Haryana, which were transferred to Delhi, will now be dealt with in Chandigarh. It comes as a major relief to the litigants and the lawyers who would now be saved the inconvenience of travelling to Delhi for litigating.

The notification follows notice to the Union Ministries of Finance, Law and Justice, Corporate Affairs and the State of Haryana on a petition filed in public interest before the Punjab and Haryana High Court though senior advocate Anand Chhibbar.

During the course of hearing, Additional Solicitor-General of India Chetan Mittal had submitted that a representation in this regard was pending with the Union Secretary concerned. Petitioner-Chandigarh Company Law Tribunal Bar Association had earlier prayed for quashing the notification issued on June 1, 2016, by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, whereby the territorial jurisdiction to decide cases of the companies with offices registered in Haryana was conferred to NCLT in New Delhi. Chhibbar had submitted this was despite a separate Bench at Chandigarh.

Currently, the NCLT Bench in Chandigarh is headed by Justice RP Nagrath, a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Appearing for the association, Chhibbar had submitted the NCLT Bench in Chandigarh was having jurisdiction over companies with registered offices at Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Chandigarh. As such, it could also have the jurisdiction over Haryana.

Chhibbar said all matters pertaining to Haryana had to be dealt in appeals, revisions and writs by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Therefore, to vest territorial jurisdiction of the companies registered in Haryana with the NCLT, New Delhi, was totally contrary to the principles of law.

Elaborating, Chhibbar said a common High Court for Haryana, Punjab and UT could handle the litigation for these jurisdictions. But the respondents for unknown reasons, illegally conferred the jurisdiction of the Haryana under the NCLT Bench in New Delhi, instead of Chandigarh.

He said going to NCLT, Delhi, was also inconvenient for litigants, who would have to first travel to Delhi for filling cases and travelling to the High Court at Chandigarh for procuring interim measures.