The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Tuesday issued notices to Torrent Investments and other respondents on a plea filed by the lender of Reliance Capital seeking a second round of financial bids.

Share Market Live

NSE

A two-member NCLAT bench headed by Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan issued the notices and directed the respondents to file replies within three days. The appeal would be heard on February 9, the tribunal said.

This comes against the backdrop of Vistra ITCL (India) Ltd, one of the members of the Committee of Creditors of Reliance Capital, moving the NCLAT against a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order that stated the extended challenge mechanism proposed by Reliance Capital’s lenders was not in compliance with IBC regulations.

Earlier on February 2, NCLT bench concluded that the challenge process concluded on December 22, 2022 with the declaration of highest net present value (NPV) of Rs 8,640 crore offered by Torrent. The tribunal declared that the process note for the second challenge mechanism was in violation of Regulation 39(1)(A)of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) regulations.

It upheld the plea by Torrent Investments challenging bankers' decision to go for the second round of auctions in pursuit of higher value for the bankrupt company.

Torrent Investments had filed a plea on January 9, requesting the tribunal to quash the lenders' plan to hold a fresh auction for the takeover of RCap. Torrent was the highest bidder offering Rs 8,640 crore in the last round of the 'challenge mechanism'.

Reliance Capital has a consolidated debt of about Rs 40,000 crore.

(With PTI inputs)