NCLAT: Lawyer for Statutory Body Cannot Delegate Brief to Junior

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has held that a lawyer specifically engaged to represent a statutory corporation cannot simply hand over the brief to a junior lawyer and stop appearing in the matter.A coram of Judicial Member Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma and Technical Members Arun Baroka and Indevar Pandey said that the counsel engaged on record is professionally bound to appear and pursue the proceedings."We make it very clear that at this point of time, that when a Counsel is engaged in relation to the matters for pursuing the matter of statutory companies or corporation like the one as appellant which is a creation of a statute having its existence under the provisions of the Electricity Act, it has to be always represented before a Court through a panel of Counsels and such a statutory organization, which is represented through a panel of Counsels or by any special Counsel engaged by statutory company/corporation, they cannot entrust the brief of the case to the junior Counsel to pursue the matter of the statutory corporation, particularly its Counsel in persona who has been engaged as a Counsel is professionally bound to appear."The Tribunal made the observation while allowing an appeal by Eastern Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh Limited concerning its attempt to recover over ₹20.72 crore in electricity charges from a corporate debtor undergoing insolvency proceedings.The NCLAT was considering the circumstances in which an application file