An appellate tribunal has chastised the government over delay in the resolution of debt-laden Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS).
The government superseded the board of IL&FS in October last year after shock defaults by the group in September set off a liquidity crunch among NBFCs.
“Every day NCLAT and NCLT are criticised for pendency of the matters. Our directions are not followed. You take it casually. For the last three months, (litigation on) amber (companies) is going on,” observed a two-member bench led by Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya, noting that the government itself was delaying this case even as it amended the Insolvency Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to limit the time frame for resolution to 330 days, including the time taken for litigation.
NCLAT had in its last order directed both the government and IL&FS to complete agreements with lenders of three IL&FS group companies, so that the companies could begin servicing their debts. However, counsel for the government and IL&FS said they had not been able to reach such agreements and sought more time. The IL&FS group has a total outstanding external debt of? 94,215 crore.
