New Delhi: As many as 25 posts of judicial and technical members are lying vacant at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the process has been initiated to fill the vacancies, the government said on Monday. The tribunal, which has multiple benches in different parts of the country, has a sanctioned strength of 1 president and 62 members -- 31 judicial and technical members each.
Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh said filling up of vacancies is a continuous process and the vacancies of members are filled from time to time. "At present, 01 President and 37 Members (18 Judicial and 19 Technical) are in position against the sanctioned strength of 01 President and 62 Members (31 Judicial and 31 Technical).
"20 members were appointed in 2021. 15 candidates have been approved for appointment as Member in 2022, out of which 10 have already joined NCLT. For other vacancies also, the process has been initiated," he told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. Meanwhile, citing data from the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) till the end of September this year, Singh said a total of 553 cases have been resolved under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
The average time taken for resolution of these cases was 473 days, the minister said. In the current fiscal up to September, 57 cases were resolved under the IBC and the average time taken was 679 days. As per the data, it took an average of 560 days to resolve 143 cases in 2021-22, while the average time taken was 468 days to resolve 120 cases in 2020-21.
In 2017-18, 19 cases were resolved and the average time taken was 230 days, and in 2018-19, 78 cases were resolved at an average time of 326 days. In 2020-21, as many as 120 cases were resolved and the average time taken was 468 days. "The higher time taken for resolution is mainly on account of associated litigation as with time, average number of interlocutory applications has increased, which is considered to impact realisable value of assets," Singh said.
In a separate written reply, the minister said 12,871 cases were pending before the NCLT under the IBC at the end of October this year. To a query on whether the government has any proposal to amend the IBC to reduce the procedural delays, Singh said no such proposal is under active consideration of the government as of now.
"As per data provided by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), 13,512, 13,211 and 12,871 cases under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) were pending as on 31.12.2020, 31.12.2021 and 31.10.2022 respectively," he added.
