By Shelal Lodhi Rajput-
While hearing the petition of petitioner Adv. Deepak Khosla, the Delhi HC today issues a notice to make a virtual hearing at National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) accessible to the public including Advocates who are not involved in the case being heard. (Deepak Kholsa vs. National Company law Appellate Tribunal & Ors). In the instant case notice was issued by a single Judge Bench of Justice Navin Chawla in the petition filed by Deepak Kholsa.
“I am seeking the enforcement of my fundamental right and the open court principle”, Khosla said. He explained that while some advocates might wish to “observe” a particular hearing, normal people wish to attend a hearing for academic purposes and in the present system it is not possible that public can access in virtual hearings.
The solution is that the Tribunals follow the lead of the Delhi High Court, he stated. In the petition before the Delhi HC, Khosla has sought a direction to the two Tribunals to allow him to witness all the virtual hearings pertaining to his professional or personal interest.
Court agreed that Tribunals are indeed “open courts”, it referred to the order passed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and opined that certain restrictions ought to be in place.
Petitioner responded, that a separate link which will mandatorily have audio-video switched off might be generated for the public.
The court stated, “We’ll find out why they are not doing it” Court has sought the assistance of the Additional Solicitor General in the matter.
Advocate Dev Prakash Bhardwaj, appearing for the Central government clarified that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India has no say in the matter.
Khosla also raised the other issue of the Tribunals using the free version of CISCO Webex platform due to which hearings get disconnected after some time. Court asked Khosla to file a separate petition for the issue and matter would be heard next on November 20
