Bring back court scrutiny of corporate schemes

Shifting jurisdiction to the corporate affairs ministry would be retrograde and indeed unconstitutional

If news reports are to be believed, a proposal to prune the jurisdiction of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is afoot. The power of the NCLT to approve of schemes of compromise and arrangement involving companies, as reports would have it, would stand transferred to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

At first blush, this can sound reasonable — sanctioning a scheme can appear to be a routine administrative matter, and the judicial time of the NCLT can get freed up to focus on the other pressing burdens imposed on the tribunal. However, the reality is that such a move