The Supreme Court is hearing a string of petitions filed by industries challenging the Feb 12, 2018 Circular of RBI

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice R F Nariman and Justice Vineet Saran is hearing petitions challenging RBI circular of February 12th last year.

In the circular, RBI had asked banks and other lenders to either implement a resolution plan for big strained balance sheet or file bankruptcy petitions against them in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

The hearing took place continuously for two days and several senior advocates such as Dr A M Singhvi, PS Narsimha, Arvind Datar appeared for power sector companies, fertilizer companies, sugar industries, etc.

Following the circular, several petitions were filed against the circular in high courts all across India, and upon the request of RBI, the cases were transferred to the Supreme Court. Some petitions were filed challenging the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, some were filed against the RBI circular and some were praying for extension of time so that their assets could be restructured.

Dr Singhvi, appearing for one of the power sector companies told the court that RBI has come up with a ‘one size fits all’ and are not focussing on the remedial process.

The hearings are still to continue and the court is yet to decide the legality of the insolvency proceedings and the RBI circular.

–India Legal Bureau