Justice Ashok Bhushan demits office as NCLAT Chairperson (Img: Internet)
New Delhi: Justice Ashok Bhushan on Saturday demitted office as the Chairperson of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), bringing to an end a tenure of nearly five years marked by several landmark judgments in insolvency, corporate governance and competition law.
The former Supreme Court judge took charge as the NCLAT Chairperson on November 8, 2021, after retiring from the apex court. He was reappointed in 2025 and continued in office until attaining the age of 70 on July 4, 2026.
Justice Ashok Bhushan's tenure as Chairperson of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal comes to an end today as he attains the age of 70. He served the tribunal from November 2021 and was re-appointed in 2025. #NCLAT pic.twitter.com/M0MOZgwzh3
— Dynamite News (@DynamiteNews_) July 4, 2026
During his tenure, Justice Bhushan presided over several significant appeals under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the Competition Act and the Companies Act. His Benches delivered important rulings that helped shape India's corporate legal framework and clarified the interpretation of several provisions governing insolvency and competition law.
Justice Bhushan headed the Bench that delivered crucial decisions involving Google's business practices in India.
In the Google Android case, the tribunal held that bundling Google's proprietary applications with the Play Store and imposing restrictive conditions on smartphone manufacturers could amount to abuse of a dominant market position under the Competition Act.
In another case concerning Google's Play Store billing policy, the NCLAT ruled that penalties should be calculated on the basis of relevant turnover rather than a company's total turnover. His Bench also dealt with the WhatsApp privacy policy case, upholding concerns over competition while modifying certain directions related to data sharing.
Justice Bhushan's tenure also witnessed several significant rulings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
In the Union Bank of India vs Dinkar T. Venkatasubramanian case, a five-member Bench held that the NCLAT has no power to review its own judgments, although it may recall an order in limited circumstances involving procedural errors.
His Bench also upheld the maintainability of Go First's voluntary insolvency proceedings despite objections from aircraft lessors. In another important judgment involving homebuyers, the tribunal ruled that claims recorded in a company's books cannot be ignored merely because they were filed after the prescribed deadline.
