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Informist, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026

 

--Zee's Chandra to NCLAT: NCLT not empowered to make 5-member bench for IBC 

--CONTEXT: NCLT formed 5-member bench to rule on Zee's Chandra IBC plan 

--CONTEXT:Lenders against NCLT tie-breaker judge OK to Zee's Chandra IBC plan 

--NCLAT keeps lenders plea on Zee's Chandra IBC plan pending, hear next Oct 

 

NEW DELHI – Subhash Chandra, chairman emeritus of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., Wednesday said that the National Company Law Tribunal was not empowered to make a five-member special Bench to decide on his INR-65-million repayment plan for admitted claims of INR 220.07 billion. Chandra said that lenders' appeal in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal challenging a tie-breaker's judge opinion to approve his plan for all creditor was defective as it was not a final order. Chandra prayed that the lenders' appeal should be dismissed as defective.

 

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, appearing for creditors LIC Housing Finance Ltd., Canara Bank, Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd, had initially sought the appellate tribunal to dispose of the lenders' appeal with liberty to approach it again when the need arise. However, after Chandra's arguments, Mehta said that they will carry on their case before the appellate tribunal. Accordingly, the appellate tribunal kept the lenders' appeal pending and placed the case for hearing in October.  

 

 

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 Monday formed a five-member bench to hear the case on Tuesday. 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 five-member special Bench of the tribunal Tuesday stayed its tie-breaker judge order on approval of Chandra's repayment plan. The special bench issued notices to Chandra, creditors LIC Housing Finance, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India (UK) Ltd., HDFC Bank, 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.  

 

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.  

 

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 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.

 

At 1203 IST, shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises were down 1.6% at INR 91.89 on the National Stock Exchange. Shares of Canara Bank were up 0.1% at INR 125.75 and those of LIC Housing Finance were down 1.4% at INR 527.45.  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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