New Delhi: The Supreme Court has rejected a review petition by Dalmia Bharat Pvt. Ltd-owned Rajputana Properties against its ruling that upheld an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) approving UltraTech’s revised ₹7,900 crore bid to buy debt-laden Binani Cement Ltd.
“Having carefully gone through the review petition and the order under challenge, we are satisfied that there is no error apparent on the face of the record, warranting reconsideration of the order impugned.The review petition is dismissed in terms of the signed order”, the court held on Wednesday.
On 29 November, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman had upheld UltraTech’s bid and dismissed the appeal by Rajputana Properties.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the committee of creditors (CoC), had told the court that UltraTech’s bid was backed by 100% of secured creditors, 100% of unsecured creditors and 100% of operational creditors.
On 14 November, a two-member bench of NCLAT had dismissed an appeal by Rajputana Properties, saying its offer for Binani Cement was “discriminatory” against some financial creditors. A review against this decision was sought by Rajputana Properties.
At the root of the dispute was a decision by Binani Cement’s CoC to consider an improved bid from UltraTech after Rajputana Properties’ ₹6,930 crore offer was declared the highest, and filed with the Kolkata bench of the bankruptcy court for its approval.
Rajputana Properties had approached the apex court in July challenging the CoC’s decision to consider UltraTech’s revised proposal, which would entirely pay off all secured and unsecured financial creditors, as well as operational creditors. The court referred the matter to NCLAT.
In its order, NCLAT had said that the resolution process under IBC should consider the interests of even those creditors, who are not part of the resolution process, such as operational creditors, while also maintaining the ability of the target company in continuing as a going concern.