Billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Ltd on Thursday urged the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to review a decision by lenders to approve Adani Enterprises Ltd’s over ₹15,000 crore resolution plan for bankrupt Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL).
Terming the approval a “commercial conspiracy”, Vedanta challenged the November 2025 decision of the committee of creditors (CoC) in the Allahabad bench of the NCLT and requested the tribunal to send the plan back to lenders for fresh consideration.
Senior advocate U.K. Chaudhary, appearing for Vedanta, told the court that lenders had sidelined the company even though it had emerged as the highest bidder in earlier rounds of bidding.
Vedanta claimed that it had emerged as the highest bidder at ₹12,505 crore on a net present value basis during the auction.
“This is not commercial wisdom. This is a commercial conspiracy to keep me out by adopting a procedure which is unfair and opaque,” Chaudhary said before the tribunal.
Vedanta said it was not seeking to be declared the successful bidder but wanted the court to examine whether the bidding process complied with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
“Even if, after fair reconsideration, we lose, we accept it,” Chaudhary told the bench.
According to Vedanta, two days before lenders began voting in November, it had submitted an addendum, an update to its earlier proposal, increasing the upfront cash payment from about ₹3,770 crore to ₹6,563 crore. It had also doubled equity infusion from ₹400 crore to ₹800 crore. The total bid of ₹12,505 crore remained unchanged.
Vedanta says lenders refused to consider the revised payment structure, citing a violation of bidding rules. The company argued that by ignoring the revised structure, its evaluation score fell, and it was pushed out of the race, even though its total offer stayed the same.
The committee of creditors, led by State Bank of India, has defended the process. Lenders said Vedanta’s arguments have no legal basis and that the insolvency process was conducted strictly under the IBC.
The lenders’ panel said Vedanta’s plea should be rejected. They also pointed out that homebuyers did not support Vedanta’s attempt to revise its offer. Under the evaluation matrix, Adani Enterprises scored 70 marks, while Vedanta scored 58 marks.
Lenders argued that if Vedanta had objections to the bidding rules, it should have raised them before participating in the process. “We got a fair offer. We are not cancelling the process and going back,” the committee told the tribunal.
The hearing is expected to continue on Friday.
“Vedanta had emerged as the highest bidder for JAL in the auction process conducted by CoC to identify the highest bidder. In the interest of the sanctity of the auction process for all stakeholders, we confirm that we have pleaded to the NCLT (Allahabad bench). The matter is sub-judice,” a Vedanta spokesperson said.
Queries emailed to the Adani Group seeking their response remained unanswered till press time.
Adani’s offer
In November, Gautam Adani–promoted Adani Enterprises submitted its resolution plan of over ₹15,000 crore before the Allahabad bench of the NCLT. The plan was placed on record by resolution professional Bhuvan Madan after receiving approval from the CoC.
The proposal secured about 93% of the votes from financial creditors in electronic voting that ended on 18 November. Under the IBC, at least 66% approval is required.
National Asset Reconstruction Co. Ltd (NARCL), which holds 85.43% voting power after acquiring debt from banks, supported the plan. Asset Care and Reconstruction Enterprise, representing Yes Bank’s share, voted against it, while some lenders did not vote.
Adani’s plan scored higher mainly because of its payment structure. While Vedanta’s offer was ₹12,505 crore on a net present value (NPV) basis, Adani offered about ₹6,000 crore upfront and proposed to clear the rest within two years. Vedanta’s payments were spread over five years.
Total admitted claims against JAL stand at ₹5.44 trillion. Adani’s plan proposes a realizable value of ₹15,343 crore, which means creditors would recover about 2.8% of their total claims.
If the NCLT approves the plan, Adani will gain access to nearly 3,985 acres of land in Noida and Greater Noida, 6.5 million tonnes of cement capacity in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, and a 24% stake in Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd.
JAL was admitted to insolvency in June 2024 after defaulting on loans of over ₹55,000 crore. Lenders led by State Bank of India later transferred ₹12,700 crore of debt to NARCL, making it the largest creditor.
The tribunal will now decide whether to uphold the lenders’ approval of Adani’s plan or send it back for reconsideration, as Vedanta has requested.
Source: Mint