New Delhi, April 5 -- The Centre has informed the Delhi High Court that seniority among members of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for appointing an acting president is determined on the basis of an established convention, under which the judicial member who takes oath first is treated as the senior-most member, since there is no statutory framework prescribing criteria for deciding such seniority. This was in response to a petition by NCLT's technical member Kaushalendra Kumar Singh, who challenged the Centre's March 16 decision appointing Bachu Venkat Balram Das as NCLT's acting president. In an affidavit filed on March 30, the Centre said that this approach was also followed for appointing judicial member Bachu Venkat Balram Das as NCLT's acting president, instead of two other technical members, including Kaushalendra Kumar Singh, who joined earlier. "That as regards the definition or criteria to be adopted for deciding seniority of Members in NCLT, nothing specific has been prescribed or mentioned either in the Companies Act, 2013, or in the National Company Law Tribunal (Salary, Allowances and other Terms and Conditions of Service of President and other Members) Rules, 2015...," the affidavit, filed through Centre's standing counsel Nishant Gautam, stated. "However, since in the past the senior-most judicial member was given the charge of acting president of NCLT in the absence of a regular president, and following the said convention, the senior-most judicial member, namely, Sh. Bachu Venkat Balaram Das, was considered for the additional charge of acting president, NCLT..." A bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla will consider the affidavit on April 6....