The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has, with effect from 1 June 2016, notified the constitution of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), pursuant to which 11 (eleven) NCLT benches have been constituted with each bench exercising different territorial jurisdiction i.e. 2 (two) at New Delhi and 1 (one) each at Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. The NCLAT will be situated in New Delhi.
All cases, proceedings or matters pending before the Board of Company Law Administration (CLB) stand transferred to the NCLT with effect from June 1, 2016, and any appeal against an order of the NCLT is required to be heard by the NCLAT.
The MCA has also notified certain provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 (Act) which enable the NCLT to discharge, inter-alia, the following functions under the Act:
(i) approve alteration of articles of association having effect of conversion of a public company into a private company;
(ii) approve issue of further redeemable preference shares, when a company is not in a position to redeem any preference shares or to pay dividend thereon;
(iii) approve consolidation or division of share capital which changes the voting percentage of shareholders in a company;
(iv) call an annual general meeting and meeting of members, to investigate into affairs of a company, freeze assets on inquiry and investigation and compound certain offences; and
(v) prevent oppression and mismanagement of the affairs of a company.
The relevant notifications issued by the MCA may be accessed at: