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Informist, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026

 

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--NCLT: Tie-breaker judge opinion not majority view, not final order of case 
--NCLT gives notices to Zee Ent's Chandra, lenders in IBC repayment plan case 
--CONTEXT: Tie-breaker judge had approved Zee Ent Chandra's resolution plan 
--NCLT: Tie-breaker judge's verdict cannot be given effect to 
--CONTEXT: Lenders had moved NCLAT vs tie-breaker judge order in Chandra case 
--NCLT: Zee Ent's Chandra to not alienate properties directly or indirectly 
--Lenders to examine whether to pursue plea in NCLAT in Zee Ent Chandra case 
--NCLAT to hear lenders' appeal in Zee Ent's Chandra case on Wed

 

NEW DELHI – The five-member special Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal Tuesday stayed its tie-breaker judge order on approval of INR 65 million repayment plan submitted by Subhash Chandra, chairman emeritus of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., for admitted claims of INR 220.07 billion, for all creditors. The special bench issued notices to Chandra, creditors LIC Housing Finance Ltd., Canara Bank, Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd, Sammaan Capital Ltd. and others on the approval of the repayment plan. The special bench directed Chandra to not alienate properties either directly or indirectly.

 

The special bench said that the tie-breaker judge's opinion was not a majority view and not a final order in the case. The tie breaker judge's opinion cannot be given effect to, it said. Following the special bench's order, the lenders LIC Housing Finance Ltd., Canara Bank, Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd., who had appealed the tie-breaker judge's order in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, said it would examine whether to pursue their case now. The appellate tribunal will hear the lenders' challenge on Wednesday.

 

After the deadlock between three members of the Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal to approve Chandra's repayment plan, the Delhi tribunal on Monday had formed a five-member bench to hear the case on Tuesday. The bench comprises judicial members Anupinder Singh Grewal, Bachu Venkat Balaram Das, and Mahendra Khandelwal and technical members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi.

 

Three different views were taken by three different members of the tribunal on Chandra's repayment plan in personal guarantor insolvency proceedings. The judicial member of the tribunal, who was hearing the case earlier, had approved Chandra's repayment plan for only assenting creditors, with liberty to banks, financial institutions, and dissenting creditors to recover their debt through debt recovery processes such as debt recovery tribunals. The technical member of the tribunal, who was hearing the case, had rejected Chandra's repayment plan. The tie-breaker judge, to whom the case was sent to resolve the impasse, had approved Chandra's plan for all creditors and extinguished the rights of even dissenting creditors to recover their money through other means. 

 

The original division bench of the tribunal said no majority view had emerged in the matter and no order could be passed. As a result, the tribunal gave a fresh reference to its president in terms of the provisions of Section 419(5) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, to resolve the case by taking appropriate action. Noting the division bench's order, the NCLT president had formed a five-member bench. 

 

In 2022, the tribunal had admitted Sammaan Capital Ltd.'s plea to start insolvency proceedings against Chandra. The company had moved the tribunal against Chandra after a default on a loan of INR 1.70 billion given to Vivek Infracon Pvt. Ltd. Chandra had provided personal guarantees for the loan. 

 

Canara Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and LIC Housing Finance Ltd. had voted against Chandra's repayment plan and sought its rejection by the tribunal. The value proposed under the plan constitutes only 0.028% of the value of Chandra's assets, they said. According to them, as per a 2018 certificate, Chandra's net worth was INR 405.62 billion.

 

The banks which opposed the repayment plan also argued that the votes cast by creditor Veena Investments Pvt. Ltd. and its subsidiaries, Direct Media Distribution Ventures Pvt. Ltd. and World Crest Advisors LLP., ought not to have been considered by Chandra's resolution professional, as these entities fell within the category of associate parties of the personal guarantor. They said the resolution professional had failed to scrutinise the claims and voting rights of certain creditors before taking the plan into consideration for approval.

 

Meanwhile, Chandra had clarified that the total claims against him as personal guarantor, in the personal insolvency proceedings, by objectors of the plan amounted to only INR 39.92 billion and not INR 220.07 billion. Of these, a claim of INR 6.20 billion stood settled and further INR 10.63 billion was offered to be paid by the borrower entities, he said. The borrowing entities for whom Chandra has provided personal guarantees have till date repaid INR 430 billion, he had said. The borrowing entities have assured to settle any other amount which might have been left, he said.

 

At 1107 IST, shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. were up 1.4% at INR 94.87 on the National Stock Exchange. Shares of HDFC Bank were up 0.4% at INR 711.50 and those of LIC Housing Finance were down 0.6% at INR 534.85.  End 

 

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

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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