Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra has approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) challenging a September 1 order of a five-member special bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) restraining him from alienating his assets.
A Bench comprising Officiating Chairperson Justice (retd.) Yogesh Khanna and Technical Members Barun Mitra and Ajai Das Mehrotra took up the appeal and directed Chandra to serve copies of the petition on the creditors.
The appellate tribunal posted the matter for hearing on September 29.
Senior Advocate Dhruv Mehta, appearing for Chandra, submitted that the appeal challenged the September 1 order passed by the NCLT special bench.
Several creditors, however, informed the NCLAT that they had either not been served copies of the appeal or had not been impleaded as parties despite having participated in the proceedings before the NCLT.
The NCLAT consequently directed Chandra to provide copies of the appeal to the appearing parties during the day and take steps to implead the necessary parties.
The dispute arises from personal insolvency proceedings initiated against Chandra by Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited under Section 95 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
Chandra had proposed a repayment plan under which Rs 6.25 crore would be paid to creditors against admitted claims of Rs 22,006.57 crore. A further Rs 25 lakh was proposed towards insolvency resolution process costs.
The plan was initially considered by an NCLT Bench comprising Judicial Member Ashok Kumar Bhardwaj and Technical Member Reena Sinha Puri. The two members delivered divergent opinions.
Bhardwaj favoured approval of the plan only in respect of creditors who had supported it, while permitting dissenting creditors, including banks and financial institutions, to pursue independent remedies for recovery of their dues.
Puri, on the other hand, rejected the plan, citing serious defects in the process followed by the resolution professional.
The matter was thereafter referred to a third member, Judicial Member Nilesh Sharma, under Section 419(5) of the Companies Act, 2013.
On August 25, Sharma held that the repayment plan should be approved. However, he directed exclusion of claims submitted through Anil Kumar on behalf of 960 individuals and Sunil Jain on behalf of 300 individuals. He further directed that the amounts earmarked for these claims be redistributed among the remaining eligible creditors.
Sharma also held that the approved plan would bind all creditors, including those who had opposed it, in terms of Section 115 of the IBC.
When the matter returned to the original two-member Bench, it held on August 31 that no majority view had emerged. The Bench noted that the Technical Member had rejected the plan, the Judicial Member had proposed restricting its benefit to supporting creditors, while the third member had approved it and held it binding on all creditors.
Since the three opinions differed, the matter was referred to the NCLT President, who constituted a five-member special bench to decide the dispute.
The larger Bench subsequently restrained Chandra from alienating his assets and also stayed the order approving his proposed payment of Rs 6.25 crore against admitted creditor claims of Rs 22,006.57 crore.
Chandra has now challenged that order before the NCLAT.
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