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Informist, Monday, Mar. 30, 2026

 

--Vedanta moves SC to stay Adani Ent's takeover of Jaiprakash Associates 

 

NEW DELHI – Vedanta Ltd. has moved the Supreme Court, seeking to stay the takeover and implementation of Adani Enterprises Ltd.'s INR-145-billion resolution plan for debt-ridden Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. Vedanta Ltd. had challenged Adani Enterprises' resolution plan, terming the process followed by the committee of creditors of Jaiprakash Associates in approving the plan as "unfair, opaque, and inequitable". 

 

On Tuesday, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal said that there was no case made out for staying the implementation of Adani Enterprises' resolution plan. The appellate tribunal had refused to stay the delisting of debt-ridden Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. from exchanges on an appeal by resolution applicant Vedanta.

 

Vedanta argued that it was the highest bidder for Jaiprakash Associates in the challenge process conducted for the resolution of debt-ridden entity. Vedanta said that at every stage of the insolvency process, it was told that it had the highest bid. However, through recourse to some unknown methodology of scoring resolution plans, its plan had been rejected by the committee of creditors, Vedanta said.

 

The objective of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was value maximisation and its offer was much more than Adani Enterprises, said Vedanta. However, the committee of creditors of Jaiprakash Associates, by adopting an incorrect criteria for evaluation of resolution plans, declared Adani Enterprises the successful resolution applicant, Vedanta said. This requires consideration as the corporate insolvency process ran contrary to the objective of the 2016 Code, said Vedanta, seeking that no equity should be created in allowing Adani Enterprises to implement the resolution plan. 

 

The committee of creditors of Jaiprakash Associates said that the evaluation of the resolution plans was according to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code evaluation matrix and each aspect of Adani Enterprises' plan was in accordance with the law. Adani Enterprises argued that there was no substantial challenge to its resolution plan by Vedanta, and it had been rightly approved by the committee of creditors and the Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal on Mar. 17.

 

In 2024, the Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal admitted ICICI Bank's insolvency petition against Jaiprakash Associates under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code for debt of INR 12.69 billion. The order was upheld by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal the same year.

 

Last year, the committee of creditors of Jaiprakash Associates approved the resolution plan put forth by Adani Enterprises. Entities that had bid to take over Jaiprakash Associates also included Dalmia Bharat Ltd. and Jindal Power. While the Vedanta group put in a bid of INR 170 billion, Adani Enterprises had proposed to take over the company for INR 145 billion.

 

At 1204 IST, shares of Vedanta were up 2.3% at INR 664.25 on the National Stock Exchange. Shares of Jaiprakash Associates were down 4.7% at INR 2.42, while those of Adani Enterprises were down 1% at INR 1,804.70 on the NSE. Shares of ICICI Bank were down 1.4% at INR 1,216.80.  End 

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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