The Karnataka High Court directed the Registrar of the National Company Law Tribunal, Bengaluru to place on record whether there is an implemented system for affixing date and time stamps when uploading interim or final orders. The direction was issued while hearing a petition by Phoenix Arc Private Limited, which sought a writ of mandamus directing the NCLT to forthwith issue, publish, release, upload and make available written and signed orders passed on an application that had been orally pronounced on July 29. Senior Advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, appearing for the petitioner, informed the court that the petitioner had already approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which also directed the NCLT to furnish the order, yet the order had not been made available even at the time of the High Court hearing. The bench, led by Justice Suraj Govindaraj, observed that orders in the High Court bore date and time stamps and indicated the intention to direct the NCLT to implement a similar practice. The court orally directed the Registrar to provide details on any such system in place by a specified date and noted the oral assertion of the NCLT’s counsel that the order in question had been uploaded on the same day as the hearing.
During the hearing, the bench insisted that orders should be uploaded within a maximum period of one week from their pronouncement. Following this, the court recorded in its order that counsel for the respondents, upon instruction from the Deputy Registrar of the NCLT, submitted that the order had been uploaded and was to be placed on record when released. The bench’s order required the Registrar to clarify if there was an implemented system for affixing date and time stamps on interim and final orders uploaded by the tribunal. The matter indicated concern over delays in making written orders available and arose from the petitioner’s difficulty in accessing the written and signed orders after they had been orally pronounced several months prior, prompting judicial scrutiny of procedural practices at the NCLT Bengaluru bench.
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