Punjab National Bank (PNB) moved the appellate bankruptcy court on Thursday, seeking a stay on the approval to
’ revival plan, potentially hampering efforts to restart operations at what was once India’s largest airline.
In its petition to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), the state-owned lender claimed that the resolution professional (RP) — the executive appointed to manage the company during the bankruptcy process — arbitrarily cut its claim after approving it.
This was “beyond his jurisdiction,” the bank said, as it sought to stay the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) approval of the proposal of Kalrock Capital and entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan to take Jet Airways out of bankruptcy.
The NCLAT issued notices to resolution professional Ashish Chhawchharia, the Kalrock-Jalan consortium and the airline’s lenders, and posted the matter for hearing on September 21.
Chhawchharia declined to comment. An email sent to Kalrock-Jalan received no response as of press time on Tuesday.
Second Plea at NCLAT
This is the second petition in the appellate tribunal over Jet Airways’ revival plan. Late last month, Jet’s employees challenged the resolution plan on aspects of payment of salary arrears and gratuity.
According to the resolution plan, the potential owners of Jet would give a small fraction of the employees’ claimed dues of ₹1,200 crore and employ a small chunk from the staff still on the payrolls of the airline. The tribunal had sought response of the Kalrock-Jalan consortium on the employees’ petition.
‘U-turn by RP’
On Thursday, PNB told the appellate tribunal that its entire claim of ₹956 crore was first approved by Chhawchharia, but then, the approved amount was reduced by about ₹202 crore on a new list of claims on September 25, 2020. The bank, which had voted against the resolution plan in the committee of creditors, wants its entire claim to be reinstated.
The lender said it had approached NCLT to reverse the resolution professional’s decision to reduce its dues, but on June 22, the tribunal approved the resolution plan without hearing its submission.
There has been a U-turn in the stand of the resolution professional “according to his convenience” and to the disadvantage of the appellant, it said. The resolution professional first accepted 100% of the claim, then said the claim was subject to the outcome of a civil appeal in a case over another company pending before the Supreme Court, but eventually reduced the dues based on the outcome of yet another case, the petition claimed.
The duty of the resolution professional “extends only to the collation of claims submitted to it,” said PNB’s petition, a copy of which ET has seen. He “does not have the jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the claim,” it said.
Ashish K Singh, managing partner of law firm Capstone Legal, said the primary ground of appeal was that the RP had changed his position on three occasions during the resolution process.
“Initially, the claim was accepted in its entirety and later, it was substantially reduced relying on various decisions of the Supreme Court. PNB does not agree with the reduction in claims and therefore they have challenged the order passed by the NCLT,” said Singh.
According to the proposal approved for the revival of Jet Airways, the Kalrock-Jalan consortium will hold an 89.79% stake in the airline, while the financial creditors that have approved the plan will own 9.50%.
