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Committee of Creditors of Amtek Auto Limited v. Dinkar T. Venkatsubramanian

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 810Decided 1 Dec 2021
Civil Appeal No. 6707 of 2019
Justice M.R. Shah · Justice Sanjiv Khanna

Background

Amtek Auto Limited went through insolvency resolution after a corporate insolvency process was initiated against it in 2017. An earlier successful bidder, Liberty House, failed to honour its approved resolution plan, triggering years of litigation including a prior Supreme Court appeal, a failed attempt by a second bidder (DVI) to walk away from its own approved plan, and a contempt petition, all tied to this one Civil Appeal No. 6707 of 2019 pending before the Supreme Court since 2019.

Decision Breakdown

By the time of this order, the DVI resolution plan had already been approved and DVI's own appeal against that approval had been dismissed by the appellate tribunal (NCLAT), and DVI had begun complying by depositing Rs. 500 crore towards the company's revival. The Supreme Court noted that the entire insolvency process was significantly behind the strict timelines mandated under Section 12 of the IBC, and that any further delay would defeat the law's purpose. It accordingly directed all parties, including the monitoring committee overseeing implementation, to complete implementation of the approved resolution plan within four weeks, warning that any lapse would be viewed very seriously, and disposed of the appeal (and all pending applications) on those terms.

Lesson Learnt

Insolvency resolution plans approved under the IBC are meant to be implemented strictly within the law's time limits; the Supreme Court will use its supervisory role to push a stalled resolution to actual completion rather than let disputes drag on indefinitely.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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