The Association said that although the Supreme Court had earlier contemplated 246 supporting staff posts for the NCLT and NCLAT, not one of those posts have been permanently established. Court masters, bench officers and other personnel were largely working on temporary or contractual arrangements, it claimed.
It further complained of frequent outages of the Document Management System (DMS), stating that hearings had on several occasions been adjourned because benches and lawyers could not access electronic case records.
Among other reliefs, the Association has asked the Supreme Court to direct that the NCLT’s sanctioned strength be increased beyond 63, vacancies be filled in advance, eligible members be considered for reappointment and 246 permanent support staff posts be operationalised.
It has also sought completion of renovation work at the CGO Complex or allotment of alternative premises, implementation of biometric access and permanent identity cards for lawyers and approval of the proposed NCLT e-Courts 2.0 system