New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the stand of the Centre on a petition by a technical member of the National Company Law Tribunal challenging the appointment of Bachu Venkat Balaram Das as acting president.

A bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and O P Shukla issued notice to the Centre as well as Das, a judicial member of the tribunal, on Kaushalendra Kumar Singh's petition and asked them to file their replies.

According to the petitioner, the law mandates the appointment of the senior-most member, irrespective of him being a judicial or a technical member, as acting president of the tribunal, and said since he was appointed as a member of the tribunal prior in time, Das could not have been made acting president.

"Given the importance of the issue involved, let a reply to the petition be filed in four days," the bench ordered, as it listed the matter for hearing on April 20.

During the hearing, the bench orally said there was "prima facie substance" in the case of the petitioner.

"If the statute says the senior-most member has to be appointed and he (petitioner) is appointed prior to the present acting president, unless there is any other rule defining seniority, there is prima facie substance in him saying that he is senior. If he is senior, then whether he is judicial or technical, and whatever be the fate of the institution if he is made acting president is irrelevant because the field is occupied by statute," it said.

The bench further said it would not "perpetuate" any "practice" of appointing judicial members as acting president if it is in contravention of the statute.

The petitioner had first approached the high court in March, stating that based on the date of joining, he was the senior most member after the former president who retired on March 16.

Since there are no rules governing inter se seniority amongst members, seniority must be decided based on the date of joining and since Das joined the tribunal two weeks after the petitioner's appointment, the petitioner was senior to him, the plea said.

The petitioner was appointed as a technical member on October 1, 2021. Das, who became a judicial member on October 18, 2021, was appointed acting president on March 17.

This plea was subsequently withdrawn by the petitioner on April 1 to approach the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) instead.

The petitioner filed the present petition after the CAT said it had no jurisdiction over the issue.

In its reply filed to the earlier petition, the Centre said Das was considered for additional charge of acting president, NCLT following the "convention" of appointing the senior-most judicial member to the post. PTI ADS DV DV