A tribunal without working courtrooms is no tribunal at all—that’s the alarm raised by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Bar Association after water seepage forced three Delhi Bench courtrooms to shut down.
On September 3, a public notice went out declaring Courtrooms IV, V, and VI on the eighth floor of the CGO Complex at Lodhi Road structurally unsafe. Leaks from the roof had damaged the false ceiling to the point of collapse risk, with the added dangers of electrical short circuits and fire. The Central Public Works Department confirmed the verdict: the rooms are off-limits until repairs and certification are complete.
From September 4, judges and lawyers have been crammed into whatever space remains on the sixth and seventh floors, running only half-day sittings to cope with the squeeze.
The Bar Association, led by its president, Senior Advocate U.K. Chaudhary, and Secretary General Saurabh Kalia, shot off a letter to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs the very next day. Their message was blunt: the system is choking. “The closure of the 8th floor has exacerbated the situation, bringing the functioning of the NCLT to a near standstill,” they wrote.
The crisis only compounds long-standing neglect. Even before the shutdown, one courtroom was already operating as a makeshift replacement, and lawyers had no bar room, no canteen, no photocopying counters, and registry staff worked without adequate space. A public interest litigation filed in 2018 about these very issues still lies unresolved.
Right now, only three of the six sanctioned courtrooms are operational. Chaudhary summed up the mood: “Persistent leakage has brought critical judicial work to a halt. Urgent intervention is the only way to restore trust in the system.”
The Bar has passed a resolution warning that if immediate repairs are not carried out, it will be forced to escalate matters. Copies of their representation have gone all the way up the ladder—to the Chief Justice of India, the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, and the NCLT President.
For a forum built to ensure swift and efficient corporate justice, the silence of shuttered courtrooms is an unsettling echo.
