The government’s new reforms could lead to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) losing its power to approve mergers and acquisitions According to the report, the government may take away NCLT’s power and hand over the responsibility to regional directors of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). The new proposal, based on which this action is being mulled, aims to ease the burden on NCLT benches and ensure that they only hear cases related to the Companies Act and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, said the report.
Since regional directors follow the Companies Act for other company matters, they even have the wherewithal to deal with these cases, a senior MCA official was quoted saying in the report. As per the report, if the proposal is passed, it will fast track the merger process in the country. Officials close to the development also said that the government is planning to include provisions for a time-bound process in the Bill, which will be tabled in parliament in the upcoming winter session, the report added.