SC refuses to restrain NCLT’s insolvency proceedings in Reliance Capital case
Supreme Court on Friday refused to restrain the National Company Law Tribunal from deciding the insolvency resolution process of Reliance Capital.
The committee of creditors of debt-ridden Reliance Capital had in June approved the bid of IndusInd International Holdings (IIH), an investment arm of the Hinduja Group, to take over the company.
IndusInd’s resolution plan is yet to be approved by the NCLT’s Mumbai bench.
A Supreme Court bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, while rejecting Gujarat-based Torrent Investments’ plea for halting the proceedings at the NCLT, clarified that “we have not stayed the proceedings”.
The clarification comes in the wake of Torrent moving an intervention application before the tribunal asking it to keep IIH’s resolution plan in “abeyance” and to restrain the lenders from declaring IIH as the successful resolution applicant till the Supreme Court decided its appeal.
Torrent was the highest bidder for the company in the first round of auction.
Its appeal against a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal’s March 2 order that allowed Reliance Capital lenders to hold a second round of auction to maximise the value of the debt-laden firm will now be heard in October.
Earlier, the apex court had asked Torrent and other bidders to participate in the second round of auction “without prejudice to their rights and contentions”.
