The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has constituted a five-member special bench to decide the personal insolvency case involving Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra after conflicting opinions emerged among tribunal members on his repayment plan.
NCLT President Justice (Retd.) Anupinder Singh Grewal has constituted the bench comprising Judicial Members Bachu Venkat Balaram Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, along with Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi. The special bench is scheduled to hear the matter on September 1.
Dispute over Rs 6.25-crore repayment plan
The dispute centres on Chandra’s repayment proposal of Rs 6.25 crore against admitted creditor claims exceeding Rs 22,000 crore. Earlier, a two-member bench comprising Judicial Member Ashok Kumar Bhardwaj and Technical Member Reena Sinha Puri held that no majority opinion had emerged even after the matter was referred to a third member.
Bhardwaj had favoured approving the repayment plan only for creditors who supported it, while allowing dissenting creditors to pursue independent recovery proceedings. In contrast, Puri rejected the plan, citing serious procedural deficiencies in the resolution process.
Third member’s opinion fails to resolve split
To resolve the split verdict, the matter was referred to Judicial Member Nilesh Sharma under the Companies Act. Sharma subsequently supported approval of the repayment plan and directed the resolution professional (RP) to redistribute the allocated amount among eligible creditors.
However, when the case returned to the original bench, it held that Sharma had delivered an independent opinion rather than concurring with either of the two earlier views, leaving the tribunal without a clear majority decision.
Banks, LIC Housing Finance challenge order
The legal battle has also reached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), where Union Bank of India (UK), Canara Bank and LIC Housing Finance have jointly challenged the order. Both the NCLT’s special bench and the NCLAT are scheduled to hear the matter on September 1.