Comments
The Kolkata Bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday reserved its order in the ongoing corporate insolvency resolution process of Binani Cement.
The Division Bench completed hearing all petitions excepting the one filed by the Resolution Professional (RP) alleging fraudulent transactions involving the promoters of Binani Cement. A total of 14 petitions were filed with the NCLT.
The 270-day moratorium period for Binani Cement ended on April 21, so the Division Bench had on April 20, passed an interim order asking the RP to continue taking care of the management of the company “until further order’’.
As per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a resolution plan has to be approved by the NCLT within the stipulated moratorium period, otherwise the company could go in for liquidation. However, the Tribunal has discretionary powers to extend the time-frame or not consider the time taken for litigation within the stipulated period.
UltraTech Cement, the unsuccessful bidder for Binani, which had earlier urged the Division Bench to reject the offer made by Dalmia Bharat-controlled Rajputana Properties and accept its revised bid, on Tuesday, cited the example of Bhushan Power and Steel, wherein the CoC has been asked by the NCLT to consider UK-based Liberty House’s bid, which was said to have been submitted beyond the deadline.
The NCLT also extended the deadline for finalising the resolution plan by two months to June 23 in the case of Bhushan Power and Steel.
It is to be noted that UltraTech had submitted its revised bid on March 8, nearly a month after the February 12 cut-off date for the submission of a resolution plan and almost a week after Rajputana was declared the highest bidder (H1).
However, SK Kapoor, Dalmia Bharat’s counsel argued that the case of Bhushan Power was completely different from that of Binani. “The last date for submission of resolution plan was not conveyed to Liberty House, whereas UltraTech was aware of the last date. While Liberty House had no access to process document, UltraTech had access and had participated in the corporate insolvency resolution process,” he said.
According to Kapoor, in case of Bhushan no H1 bidder was selected by CoC, which was to be decided in the meeting proposed to be held on March 14.
However, the NCLT through an interim order on March 13, had barred the lenders committee to consider any resolution plan as the matter was sub-judice.
However, that was not the case in Binani where Rajputana was selected H1 bidder, its plan approved by the CoC and a letter of intent was also issued and accepted by the company.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.