By Vinod Kothari
Insolvency laws are all about distributive justice, inspired by the pari passu rule enunciated centuries ago. The key theme of insolvency laws is that since there is a shortfall of assets to pay off everyone, everyone with similar ranking of priorities should be paid proportionately. Read more →
– CS Megha Mittal
[This article is intended for academic debate on the law around powers of the Committee of Creditors vis-à-vis the adjudicatory authorities, as it continues to evolve] Read more →
By Vinod Kothari [vinod@vinodkothari.com]; Abhirup Ghosh [abhirup@vinodkothari.com]
With the 12th Feb., 2018 having been struck down by the Supreme Court, the RBI has come with a new framework, in form of Directions[1], with enhanced applicability covering banks, financial institutions, small finance banks, and systematically important NBFCs. The Directions apply with immediate effect, that is, 7th June, 2019.
The revised framework [FRESA – Framework for Resolution of Stressed Accounts] has much larger room for discretion to lenders, and unlike the 12th Feb., 2018 circular, does not mandate referral of the borrowers en masse to insolvency resolution. While the RBI has reserved the rights, under sec. 35AA of the BR Act, to refer specific borrowers to the IBC, the FRESA gives liberty to the members of the joint lenders forum consisting of banks, financial institutions, small finance banks and systemically important NBFCs, to decide the resolution plan. The resolution plan may involve restructuring, sale of the exposures to other entities, change of management or ownership of the borrower, as also reference to the IBC. Read more →
The possibility of going concern sales in liquidations, visualised by Adjudicating Authorities in several early cases, got a regulatory recognition vide IBBI (Liquidation Process) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2018. Since then, there has been a lot of work on how exactly will going concern sale work in liquidation. Our previous write- ups on going concern sale are Liquidation sale as going concern: The concern is dead, long live the concern! and Enabling Going Concern Sale in Liquidation. IBBI itself has organised several meetings around this; there have been meetings organised by other groups such as Society of Insolvency Practitioners of India (SIPI).
Recently, the IBBI released a draft of the amendments to the Liquidation Regulations[1], which includes regulatory amendments pertaining to going concern sale as well.
This Note highlights the need to have a relook at these proposed amendments, in context of going concern sale.