Torrent Investment challenges IIHL’s acquisition of Reliance Capital’s assets

Torrent Investments Pvt. Ltd filed an urgent letter in the Supreme Court challenging the March 2 order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, which allowed Reliance Capital’s creditors to initiate a second auction as part of the corporate insolvency resolution process.

In its three-page letter, Torrent said it sought the apex court’s intervention for an urgent hearing and final disposal of its pending appeal, challenging the second round of auctions for debt-laden RCap’s assets.

In the second auction in April, Hinduja Group’s IndusInd International Holding Ltd was the sole bidder. “Any further progress pursuant to the conduct of the second challenge process, including the CIC approval of the resolution plan by the IIHL and the submission of the resolution plan before the Mumbai NCLT, is that all conscious actions (torrents) of the CIC and the administrator to render the appeal filed by the appellant are ineffective and create prejudice against the appellant in complete violation of the order,” torrent alleged in its urgent application.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday listed the matter for final disposal on October 11.

Earlier, the lenders had moved the NCLAT after the NCLT allowed Torrent Investments’ application challenging the lender’s proposal to conduct a second auction (also known as the extended challenge process) as part of Reliance Capital’s Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).

“The proposed second round of the challenge mechanism is nothing but an act to indirectly achieve what could not have been achieved by adhering to the challenge mechanism in terms of the challenge process note,” a bench led by Justice Shyam Babu Gautam and Justice Pradeep Narhari Deshmukh said in their March order.

A bench headed by Justice Shyam Babu Gautam and Justice Pradeep Narhari observed that “the proposed second round challenge process is nothing but an act of achieving what cannot be achieved indirectly by following the challenge process.” Deshmukh said in their order of march.

By Priyanka Bhowmick