In a bid to protect the new board overseeing the turnaround plan for IL&FS, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has sought relief from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against any criminal, civil liability or punitive action against the newly constituted team.

According to legal experts, the Centre had taken a similar provision while appointing a new board to oversee the resolution of Satyam in 2009.

This comes even as IL&FS is missing more debt obligations. IL&FS failed to service principal and interest on loans from banks, inter-corporate deposit and commercial papers totalling $4.6 million due for the period from September 30 to October 4.

The newly-constituted seven-member board on Thursday said that there are 348 entities within the group, significantly higher than what was disclosed earlier. This could also mean that the group’s debt could be much higher than the ₹91,000 crore as at March-end 2018.

Uday Kotak, MD & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, who was elected non-executive chairman of IL&FS, had said on Thursday that the complex structure of the organisation was a big challenge. IL&FS Transportation Networks had earlier defaulted on payments of interest due on non-convertible debentures amounting to over ₹20 crore. The payment was due on October 1.

The company, in a statement to the stock exchanges, said that it does not have sufficient funds to make interest payments on three different NCDs for the period June 30-September 29.

The beleaguered IL&FS group has now had several defaults, which led to the resignation of IL&FS Financial Services Managing Director and Chief Executive Ramesh C Bawa.

The Centre had intervened to reconstitute the board. The new board is expected to provide a roadmap for the company by October 15.

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