ICICI moves NCLAT over Jaypee co insolvency

NEW DELHI: Private sector lender ICICI Bank on Monday approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), seeking a direction to the Allahabad bench of

National Company Law Tribunal

(NCLT) to hear urgently its insolvency petition against

Jaiprakash Associates

(JAL) and pass the order without any further delay.


In its plea before the appellate tribunal, ICICI Bank submitted that there has been no progress in its insolvency petition against JAL, which was filed in September last year. The bank alleged that the

Jaypee group

's flagship firm is delaying admission of the insolvency plea by approaching several judicial forums.

ICICI Bank further added that the hearing before the Allahabad bench of the NCLT was adjourned almost a dozen 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 around Rs 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 (IBC). JAL challenged the ICICI Bank petition before the Allahabad high court, but 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," said an ICICI Bank counsel on Monday. "We want direction to NCLT to expedite the matter," the counsel said.