Congress slams NCLT decision

A National Company Law Tribunal ruling that sharply reduced Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra’s liability in an insolvency case has sparked a political row

A National Company Law Tribunal ruling that sharply reduced Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra’s liability in a personal insolvency case has sparked a political row, with the Congress saying that a settlement of just ₹6.5 crore against lenders’ claims of more than ₹22,000 crore raises questions about the fairness of the process.

India News

In a post on X, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi called NCLT as “Neta-Company Loot Tribunal” and party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said such reductions in debt value, called haircuts in financial parlance, amount to a loan waiver for industrialists. Neither leader, nor Congress’ communications chief Jairam Ramesh, who also raised the issue, named Chandra but referenced the NCLT decision.

A statement from Chandra’s office said that he has not borrowed from any lender in the matter and was only a personal guarantor for loans to companies”remotely connected” to the Essel Group. The total claims against him in the personal insolvency proceedings is only ₹3,992 crore and not ₹22,000 crore, the statement said. It also said a claim of ₹620 crore was settled and borrower entities have offered to pay ₹1,063 crore.

If a farmer doesn’t pay 50 thousand, his land gets auctioned off. If a salaried person misses even one EMI, bank goons show up at the house. Poor students can’t even get loans for education. But for select “friends,” bank money is like personal property - withdraw as much as you want, repay whatever you feel like. The Modi government has created two systems in the country - one for a handful of billionaires, and another for everyone else,” Gandhi said in his post.

“The tragedy of this country is that in name of haircuts, people are being pickpocketed. For pickpocketing, they devised a beautiful word called haircut. In name of haircut through NCLT this is an institutional loot and plunder of public and bank money by Modi government. These are words of late Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said at a press conference.

“How can you have haircuts of 50 %, 60 %, 70 %, 80 %, 90 % and now 99 %? Then why are you having NCLT proceedings? This is loan waiver of industrialists in garb of haircuts. Congress Party has repeatedly raised this ...,” he added.

Ramesh claimed that haircut has become “mundan” (hair shaving).

“..The National Company Law Tribunal has just approved a repayment plan of a noted businessman under which creditors will receive only ₹6.5 crores against admitted claims of around ₹22,006.57 crore. This is not just a haircut. It is actually a mundan and makes a complete mockery of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016,” Ramesh posted on X.

Surjewala also demanded that “The finance minister must immediately come out of last 12 years’ data on how many lakh crores have been plundered in haircuts through NCLT? That figure may be upwards of Rs. 10 lakh crores, I suspect.”

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