When an application/petition is submitted at the registry, the person in charge of the filing counter has to immediately on receipt of such petition/ appeal / application affix the date stamp of Tribunal on the document and return the acknowledgement to the party. Post this process, the filing in charge enters the particulars of all such documents in the register after daily filing and assigns a diary number which is also shared with the party before the pleadings are sent for scrutiny. Thereafter, the registry scrutinises the pleadings filed and if a defect is found, such pleadings are sent back to the party for removing defects. The pleadings have to be re-submitted to the registry within seven days.

In addition, the registrar may allow additional reasonable time to cure the defects. However, after speaking to several advocates practising before NCLT and NCLAT, the researchers found that the filing process in itself was cumbersome and that the registry raised some curious objections. “Filing in NCLT is too technical at times with objections being raised for the most frivolous of issues. I personally have difficulty in getting urgent matters listed without the intervention of the Bench. Sometimes even after the bench permits, there is a delay in the part of the registry for the scrutiny. Delhi in particular has tough issues as they are severely short-staffed.” shared another advocate practising before Delhi NCLT.

In furtherance, when we spoke to advocates appearing before NCLT Bengaluru Bench, we found that during the filing process, advocates have to mandatorily file affidavits which are not even required under law. Such issues have been noticed after NCLT has taken measures to make the scrutiny process uniform.