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In an unprecedented development, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to two members of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal to show cause for not initiating contempt proceedings against them for delivering a judgment in violation of a status quo order passed by the Supreme Court.
A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, issued show-cause notices to Rakesh Kumar (Judicial Member) and Alok Srivastava of the NCLAT for delivering a judgment on October 13 in the Orbit Electricals and Deepak Kishan Chhabria case, ignoring a status quo order passed by the Supreme Court.
The Bench directed that the said members should personally appear before the Supreme Court on October 30. The Bench, prima facie, noted that though the NCLAT Bench was informed of the Supreme Court’s order, it proceeded to pass the judgment. The apex court transferred the appeal to a Bench led by the Chairperson of the NCLAT for fresh hearing.
“We are of the view that the members of NCLAT bench are liable to be proceeded against in contempt proceedings. We issue notice of show-cause against the members...they shall be present before this court on October 30,” the Bench observed.
Status quo order
The issue relates to the events which took place on October 13 in a matter pertaining to the annual general meeting (AGM) of Finolex cables. On that day, the Supreme Court in the forenoon session passed an order of status quo.
However, in the afternoon session, the lawyers mentioned the matter again before the Supreme Court to state that the NCLAT proceeded to deliver the judgment despite being told about the status quo order. Following this, the Supreme Court directed the NCLAT Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan to conduct an inquiry.
The inquiry report of NCLAT Chairperson was produced before the Supreme Court. The two NCLAT members reportedly told the NCLAT Chairperson that they were not aware of the Supreme Court’s order.
However, this version was disputed by the lawyers from both the sides, who categorically stated that the order was mentioned before the NCLAT Bench before it proceeded to deliver the judgment at 2 pm on October 13.
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