Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman being honoured by National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) chairman Ashok Bhushan during the inauguration of the renovated premises of Chennai Bench of NCLAT on Saturday. NCLAT Judicial Member M. Venugopal looks on.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Centre has no hesitation whatsoever to go to the Parliament frequently to amend corporate laws in order to fine-tune them and make them more robust, to cater to the challenges as well as the ever-changing requirements of the industry, said, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, here on Saturday.
Stating that the Opposition members do question the number of times the government intends to amend the laws related to corporate affairs, she said, the treasury benches had, nevertheless, been successful in convincing them about the need for such frequent amendments so that the laws truly meet the expectations of the investors.
Further, recognising the resentment among certain quarters over delays in filling up vacancies in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) as well as the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), she said, the government had taken serious note of the issue and that “of late, a lot of appointments are happening at good speed.”
The Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the renovated premises of the Chennai Bench of NCLAT. Asserting that the goal was to make the country a lot more transparent in its commercial activities and gain investors’ confidence in full, she assured the gathering of the government’s unwavering commitment towards this goal.
In his address, NCLAT chairman Ashok Bhushan said: “According to the World Bank, India ranks 63rd in 2022 in ease of doing business among 190 countries across the world and has improved its rank from 142 in 2015.” He said, timely and effective disposal of commercial cases by the tribunals had helped all stakeholders.
He pointed out that the principal bench of NCLAT in New Delhi had disposed of 2,015 appeals in 2022 as against the institution of 1,844 new cases that year. Stating that the Chennai Bench of NCLAT was at its nascent stage, he requested the Minister to appoint one more judicial and technical member to the Bench.
NCLAT judicial member and former acting chairman M. Venugopal said the Chennai Bench had disposed of 562 out of 1,480 appeals that were filed since its inception on January 25, 2021. The Bench disposed of 111 appeals in 2021, 303 in 2022 and 148 between January 1 and March 31 this year, he said. Mr. Venugopal also said, there had been a quantum jump of 175% in disposal of cases in 2022 as against the disposal recorded in 2021. The momentum had been maintained this year too, he added.
