A clutch of senior advocates, lawyers, company secretaries and chartered accountants practising before the Calcutta bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has written to the top functionaries in the ministry of corporate affairs seeking extension of judicial member Rajasekhar V.K’s tenure.

The three-year tenure of the member is coming to an end on July 3. Unless extended to five years or a replacement is named, the functioning of the bench which hears corporate and insolvency matters, may be impacted..

There are two operating benches in Calcutta at present, each comprising a judicial member and a technical member. Apart from adjudicating matters of the Calcutta bench, Rajasekhar V.K. is also entrusted with additional charge of NCLT Allahabad bench.

The other judicial member Rohit Kapoor was also given additional charge of the NCLT, Guwahati and therefore increasing burden on the two benches.

“We request you to ensure that the functioning of the NCLT, Calcutta bench is not interrupted,” the letter said.

“Reduction in bench strength of an important tribunal like NCLT will lead to a situation where litigants have to wait for long to get justice,” advocate Rishav Banerjee, one of signatories, added.