NCLT Postpones Liquidation Proceedings for Bhushan Power and Steel
After the Supreme Court ordered status quo in the case on May 26, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) postponed the liquidation proceedings for Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) until August.
JSW Steel, which had requested a halt to the BPSL liquidation proceedings in order to submit a review petition contesting the top court's 2 May ruling, was given temporary reprieve by the Supreme Court earlier this week.
This decision ordered the liquidation of the bankrupt steel company and invalidated JSW's Rs.19,300 crore resolution plan.
Since proceeding with liquidation could compromise the review, the Supreme Court permitted JSW to submit the review petition within the statutory restriction period.
As a result, the NCLT was instructed to keep things as they were pending additional directives.
The top court, meantime, stated that once the review petition is filed, it is probably going to be heard following the court's summer break.
Former promoter Sanjay Singhal filed one of the applications seeking implementation of the highest court's 26 May ruling, which will now be heard by the newly formed NCLT bench, which is made up of Justice Ashok Kumar Bhardwaj (judicial member) and Reena Sinha Puri (technical member).
After Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar, the president of the NCLT, decided to reassign the case from his bench, which had been hearing it, the new bench took over.
In 2017, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) named BPSL as one among the first 12 big loan defaulters to be sold or liquidated under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) due to debts surpassing Rs.47,200 crore.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) affirmed JSW Steel's Rs.19,300 crore resolution plan in February 2020 after it was approved by the NCLT in September 2019.
However, in response to appeals submitted by Singhal and a few operational creditors, the Supreme Court invalidated the settlement plan on May 2, 2025.
Also Read: Case Study: How Navil Noronha Made DMart a Rs.50,935 Crore Empire
The court's ruling was based on serious non-compliance with important IBC provisions, specifically the plan's failure to be strictly implemented within the authorized timeframe.