NCLT Mumbai bench directs Ruchi Soya to comply with Jan 31 SC order

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Thursday directed Ruchi Soya's resolution professional to comply with the January 31 Supreme Court order and said it will hear the matter from March 5. A resolution for Ruchi Soya, which owes about Rs 12,000 crore to the lenders, has been moving between Ram Dev's Patanjali and Adani Wilmar. On January 31, the Adanis walked out of the process leaving only Patanjali in the fray.

The NCLT bench headed by VP Singh and Ravikumar Duraisamy, hearing on a petition filed by two of Ruchi Soya creditors--Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank, said it will start regular hearing on the matter from March 5. These same lenders had dragged Ruchi Soya to the insolvency court on December 8, 2017.

The apex court on January 31 had said the suspended board members of a company should be included in all the deliberations of the committee of creditors, including the discussions on the resolution plan. The apex court also said resolution plans should also be shared with the suspended board members.

The Supreme Court further said every participant in the committee of creditors meetings is entitled to notice of every meeting and such notice must contain an agenda of the meeting, together with the copies of all documents relevant for matters to be discussed and the issues to be voted upon at the meeting. Setting aside the NCLAT judgement that had refused to give copies of the resolution plans to the suspended directors of Ruchi Soya Industries, undergoing insolvency proceedings, the SC had held that the suspended directors must be given the copies of all resolution plans within two weeks from the date of the judgement.

"The resolution applicant in each of these cases will then convene a lenders' meeting within two weeks thereafter, which will include the erstwhile board of directors as participants. The lenders will then deliberate on the RPs afresh and either reject them or approve of them with the requisite majority, after which, the further procedure detailed in the IBC and regulations will be followed," the apex court said.

Indore-based Ruchi Soya is part of the second list of the 28 large defaulters that the Reserve Bank had flagged for bankruptcy resolution. Ruchi Soya has many manufacturing plants and its leading brands include Nutrela, Mahakosh, Sunrich, Ruchi Star and Ruchi Gold.

While Adani Wilmar had offered to pay Rs 5,474 crore for Ruchi Soya, of which Rs 4,300 crore was to go to the lenders, Patanjali had offered Rs 5,765 crore, of which Rs 4,065 crore was to go to lenders. Currently, Patanjali is the only bidder for the crippled company.

(With inputs from agencies.)