New Delhi (12.09.2021): Days after the Apex Court had warned of contempt of court action against the government officials for mounting vacancies the Union Government on Friday cleared appointment of Judicial Members and Technical Members to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) for a period of five years or till the members attain the age of sixty-five years, whichever is earlier.

Altogether eighteen members, eight judicial and ten technical, were appointed in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)

The judicial members (NCLT) are:

1. Justice Telaprolu Rajani (Judge, Andhra Pradesh High Court)
2. Justice Pradeep Narhari Deshmukh (Former Bombay High Court judge)
3. Justice S Ramathilagam (Former Madras High Court judge)
4. Dharminder Singh (Presiding Officer, DRT-3 (Delhi)
5. Harnam Singh Thakur (Retd. Registrar General, Punjab and Haryana High Court)
6. P Mohan Raj (Retd. District Judge, Salem, Tamil Nadu)
7. Rohit Kapoor (Advocate)
8. Deep Chandra Joshi (District Judge)

The technical members (NCLT) are:

1. Ajai Das Mehrotra (Retd IRS:1982), Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax
2. Balraj Joshi, Ex-CMD, NHPC
3. Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar (Retd IAS:1983:UP), Ex-Secretary, Panchayati Raj
4. Subrata Kumar Dash (Retd IRS IT)
5. Avinash Kumar Srivastava (Retd IAS:1982:UP), Ex-Secretary, Consumer Affairs
6. Shree Prakash Singh (Ex CGM, CBI)
7. Sameer Kakar, Chartered Accountant)
8. Manoj KUmar Dubey (Retd IRS IT:DG IT)
9. Kaushalendra Kumar Singh (Retd IRS IT) Ex Chief Commissioner of Income Tax)
10. Anuradha Sanjay Bhatia (Retd IRS IT), Ex-Principal Chief Commissioner of IT)

Further, thirteen members, six judicial and seven accountant members, were appointed in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) for a period of four years or till they attain the age of sixty-seven years, whichever is earlier. It may be underlined that of six judicial members four are from general category, one from OBC and one from SCST category. Of seven accountant members five are from unreserved category and one each from OBC & SC category.

1. Sonjoy Sharma (Advocate)
2. S Seethalakshmi (Advocate)
3. Shatin Goyal (Additional District and Sessions Judge)
4. Anubhav Sharma (Additional District and Sessions Judge)
5. TR Senthil Kumar (Advocate), OBC Category
6. Manomohan Das (Law officer in SBI), SC Category

ITAT Accountant Members are:

1. Bhagirath Mal Biyani, Chartered Accountant (CA)
2. Balakrishnan S, CA
3. Jamlappa Dattatraya Battuil, CA
4. Padmavathy S, CA
5. Arun Khodpia, CA
6. Rathod Kamlesh Jayantbhai (CA), OBC Category
7. Ripote Dipak Pandurang (Commissioner of Income Tax), SC Category

It may be underlined that a three-judge Bench of the Apex Court headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had on September 6, pulled up the Union Government for its inaction in filling up vacancies in tribunals and also berated it for enacting the Tribunals Reforms Act, 2021 in violation of its judgments.

The Bench had reiterated that the government is leaving the Supreme Court with no option but to initiate contempt of court action or close down tribunals. The Court had remarked that "It is clear that you don't want to respect the judgments of this court. Now we have the option to stay the Tribunal Reforms Act or close down tribunals or we ourselves appoint the people or the next option is initiate contempt of courts act. These are 3 options,"