The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), New Delhi, has junked an appeal filed by Shaji Purushothaman, director, Empee Distilleries Ltd., which sought the setting aside of the bankruptcy proceedings against the company.
The Chennai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had admitted insolvency proceedings against Empee Distilleries on November 1, 2018, in a case filed by Union Bank of India.
CoC nod for plan
The committee of lenders had unanimously approved the resolution plan by SNJ Distillers and submitted it to NCLT for approval, which was pending. In the meantime, Mr. Purushothaman moved a miscellaneous application before NCLT seeking dismissal of the insolvency petition and offering to settle claims of all the creditors. However, the NCLT dismissed that petition against which he moved the NCLAT.
According to resolution professional’s filing with the exchanges, the total claims made by financial and operational creditors were over ₹1,350 crore while the claims admitted were about ₹469.31 crore. The financial creditors claimed about ₹335 crore while the amount admitted was ₹302.73 crore. The admitted claims of financial creditors were — ₹148.45 crore from Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company(unsecured financial creditor), ₹78.05 crore from Andhra Bank,₹54.46 crore from IDBI Trusteeship Services and ₹11.34 crore from the Union Bank of India.
The NCLAT said it was not inclined to issue any specific direction and told Mr. Purushothaman to move an application for settling the claims of all the creditors.
“The CoC may decide as to whether such a proposal for settlement is better than the resolution plan approved by it and may pass appropriate order. However, as such decision is required to be taken by the ‘Committee of Creditors,’ we are not expressing any opinion on the same,” the NCLAT said.
As per rules, 90% of the lenders have to approve for such a settlement.
