NCLT bench transfer plea after interim stay, alleging member threatened to vacate stay; transfer request rejected as unjustified

A transfer request from one NCLT Bench was sought on the allegation that, after an interim stay was granted, a Member (Technical) "threatened" to vacate it. The SC held that transfer cannot be ordered merely because the Presiding Officer or a Member makes observations during hearing, and that the plea amounted to an impermissible attempt to browbeat the Tribunal; the application was therefore motivated and unjustified. Consequently, the SC refused to interfere with the NCLT President's order rejecting the transfer application and disposed of the SLP, while keeping open a connected question of law raised separately.

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Permission to file a special leave petition was granted and notice was issued "with a view to answering question no.(ii) formulated by the High Court in paragraph 9" of the referenced High Court judgment, returnable on the stated date, with dasti permitted. In the connected SLPs challenging the President, National Company Law Tribunal order disposing of a transfer application, the Court noted it had already expressed prima facie doubt on the correctness of the High Court's view and had issued notice in the connected matter to determine the formulated question of law. On the transfer request (seeking transfer of three pending NCLT matters from the Amravati Bench to Hyderabad), the principal ground was an allegation that a Member (Technical) "threatened to vacate" an interim stay granted earlier. The Court rejected this basis, holding it was "nothing but a brazen attempt to browbeat the Members of the Tribunal" and that "Proceedings cannot be transferred merely because the Presiding Officer or a Member, during the course of hearing, has made certain observations." Finding the transfer application "motivated and entirely unjustified," the Court declined interference with the impugned order, while keeping the connected question of law open for determination in the separately noticed proceedings.

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