The Supreme Court on Monday asked the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to decide whether the court-appointed panel should monitor all 30 projects of stressed real estate firm Supertech Limited, or limit it to the 16 housing projects already handed over to NBCC (India) Limited. The directive follows the suspension of the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) appointed to the company over alleged misconduct.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalia Bagchi said: “We request NCLAT to consider whether to appoint the committee constituted by the court to merge and manage all the 30 projects or whether such an arrangement is limited to 16 projects or not.”
The Supreme Court had earlier this year handed over 16 out of 30 high-tech housing projects to the central government’s construction firm NBCC (India) Limited. On April 10, a court-appointed amicus curiae informed the court about the two-year suspension of IRP Hitesh Goel by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) last month.
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Since the Supertech projects were being supervised by a high-level committee and a special project committee – both headed by the IRP – the court proposed forming a committee of experts appointed by the court to supervise all existing projects. However, this proposal was objected to by financial creditors, land ownership authorities, and Supertech.
Considering the difference of opinion among various stakeholders, the bench said: “With regard to our April 10 preliminary opinion on amalgamation of the projects for the purpose of constituting a single panel constituted by the Tribunal, the counsels for the various parties – homebuyers, commercial buyers, NBC and financial creditors – submitted that the issue could be effectively taken up by the NCLAT.”
The court clarified that its April 10 order should not be considered as giving any opinion on merits and allowed NCLAT to take a decision after hearing all parties. The court also allowed the Noida land ownership authorities, Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority to file their applications before the NCLAT as they are not parties to the pending proceedings.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Supertech, said the company was not opposed to replacing the IRP. However, the issue regarding projects other than the 16 projects set up by NBCC has to be addressed by NCLAT. “If someone is suspended, he may be replaced. But the case related to other projects is pending before NCLAT,” Divan said.
ASG N Venkatraman, appearing for NBCC, said the case is being heard by NCLAT. Other lawyers for various stakeholders pointed out that as per the April 10 order, NCLAT is not willing to proceed.
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“Our order was to ensure smooth and efficient administration. Not to give the impression that something will be snatched away,” the CJI said.
The court-appointed amicus curiae stated that Supertech projects are being handled by the committee headed by the IRP and that there are dues due $9000 crores will be paid. “Who will look after the company until the IRP is set? Even for the 16 projects, the work is in limbo. This requires urgent orders as the company has a lot of business links,” Jain said.
The court explained that its April 10 order was guided by two matters. “The issue has two sides – exploring the IRP and having a joint management committee so that interoperability and mutual responsibility between the projects can be resolved. Since there is a difference of opinion, we are referring the matter to NCLAT. Replacing the IRP is crucial and NCLAT will identify interdependencies and will consider implementing certain projects.”
Supertech has sought recall of the April 10 order, which states that the court-appointed committee may be limited to only 16 projects and not extend to the remaining 14 projects. The amicus curiae informed that on February 5, the Supreme Court, while approving NCLAT’s December 2024 order handing over 16 Supertech projects to NBCC, had allowed the court to be approached in case there was any impediment to the smooth completion of the projects. The suspension of IRP Hitesh Goel has hampered the smooth implementation as he heads the SC and Project Committee for all the projects.
