ICICI Bank moves appellate tribunal for early hearing on JAL insolvency plea

‘No progress in petition filed in September last, firm delaying admission of plea’

Due woes: ICICI Bank says JAL owes about ₹1,296 crore and the lender had filed the plea under IBC.

Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), seeking a direction to NCLT Allahabad to hear urgently its insolvency petition against Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. (JAL) and pass orders without any further delay.

In its plea before the appellate tribunal, ICICI Bank submitted that there had been no progress in its insolvency petition against JAL filed in September last year.

‘Several forums moved’

The bank alleged that the Jaypee Group’s flagship firm was delaying admission of the insolvency plea by approaching several judicial forums. ICICI Bank also said that the hearing before the Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) was adjourned almost 12 times from September 10, 2018, to May 27, 2019, and such adjournments were “unfairly delaying” the resolution process. Hearing the matter, a single-member NCLAT bench of Justice Bansi Lal Bhat directed to list ICICI Bank’s plea on July 1 for hearing. JAL owes about ₹1,296 crore and the bank had approached NCLT to recover the dues by filing an insolvency plea against the company under Section 7 of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code.

Plea challenged

However, JAL challenged the ICICI Bank petition before the Allahabad High Court, but the same was rejected. Later, JAL moved the Supreme Court, which too refused to stay the application.

“However, despite this, there is no development in this matter,” ICICI Bank’s counsel said on Monday.

“We want direction to NCLT to expedite the matter,” the counsel said, alleging that the proceedings before the NCLT were being played into the hands of JAL’s promoters.