The Supreme Court on Monday asked the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to decide whether a court-appointed committee should monitor all 30 projects of the stressed real estate firm Limited, or be limited to the 16 housing projects already handed over to NBCC (India) Ltd. The direction follows the suspension of the interim resolution professional (IRP) appointed for the company over alleged misconduct.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said: “We request NCLAT to consider whether or not the court-constituted committee be appointed for amalgamating and managing all 30 projects or such arrangement be restricted to 16 projects.”
The top court had earlier this year handed over 16 of the 30 Supertech housing projects to the central government’s construction arm NBCC (India) Ltd. On April 10, the court-appointed amicus curiae informed the court about the two-year suspension of IRP Hitesh Goel by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) last month.
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Since the Supertech projects were overseen by an apex committee and a project-specific committee – both headed by the IRP – the court proposed having a court-appointed committee of experts to oversee all existing projects. However, this proposal was objected to by financial creditors, land-owning authorities, and Supertech.
Considering the difference in opinion among various stakeholders, the bench said, “With regard to our tentative opinion of April 10 on amalgamation of projects for purpose of constituting one court-constituted committee, counsel for various parties – homebuyers, commercial buyers, NBCC, financial creditors – state that this issue can be effectively gone into by NCLAT.”
The court clarified that its April 10 order should not be considered as giving any opinion on merits and allowed NCLAT to take a decision after hearing all sides. The court also allowed land-owning authorities of Noida, Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority to make their submissions before NCLAT as they are not parties in the pending proceedings.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Supertech, said the company was not opposed to the IRP’s replacement. However, the issue regarding projects other than the 16 constructed by NBCC is to be addressed by NCLAT. “If somebody is suspended, he may be replaced. But the issue regarding the other projects is under consideration before NCLAT,” Divan said.
ASG N Venkatraman, appearing for NBCC, said the issue is under consideration of NCLAT. Other lawyers for various stakeholders pointed out that pursuant to the April 10 order, NCLAT is not willing to proceed further.
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The CJI said, “Our order was to ensure a smooth and efficient administration. It is not to give an impression that something will be snatched away.”
The court-appointed amicus stated that the Supertech projects are handled by the IRP-headed committee and there are dues worth ₹9,000 crore to be paid. “Who will look after the company till IRP is appointed? Even for the 16 projects, the work is in limbo. This requires urgent orders as the company has a lot of business linkages,” Jain said.
The court explained that its April 10 order was guided by two concerns. “The issue has two limbs – exploring IRP and having a common management committee so that inter-operability and inter-liability between the projects can be sorted out. Since there is divergence of opinion, we are referring the matter to NCLAT. The replacement of IRP is paramount and NCLAT will determine inter-dependency and consider hive out certain projects.”
Supertech had sought recall of April 10 order, stating that a court-appointed panel may be restricted to 16 projects only and not extended to the balance 14 projects. The amicus had informed the court that on February 5, the top court, while approving NCLAT’s December 2024 order handing over 16 Supertech projects to NBCC, had permitted him to approach the court in case of any impediment in smooth completion of the projects. The suspension of IRP Hitesh Goel hindered smooth implementation as he heads the apex committee and the project-wise committee for all projects.