The Supreme Court will hear the petition filed by the Torrent Group against the National Companies Act Appeal Court (NCLAT) order allowing a second electronic auction for Reliance Capital (RCap) on March 20.
The second round of the auction, scheduled for the same date, is unlikely to take place until the higher court gives its address. This would further delay the process of resolving the corporate insolvency of the former Anil Ambani group company.
Torrent Investments, a group company through which Gujarat-based Torrent Group had submitted its offer for all of RCap's assets, requested an expedited hearing of the petition before the second challenge mechanism.
Leading advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Shyam Diwan appeared on Torrent, while Pooja Dhar appeared on behalf of the CoC.
Last week, Torrent had moved the vertex against NCLAT's March 2 order. In its filing, the Gujarat-based company called the trustee's decision to conduct another round of the challenge process "illegal" and sought a faster and time-bound conclusion of the bankruptcy process.
It also sought to have the โน9,000 crore bid from IndusInd International Holdings, the firm through which Hinduja Group has submitted bids, be declared "invalid" as was done after the first electronic auction was completed. Torrent also wanted his offer of โน8640 crore to be considered final.
NCLAT in its order had allowed a second electronic auction for RCap to be held, allowing the petition from lenders who wanted to "maximize the value" of the debt-laden company since the bids received were "suboptimal and unsatisfactory."
The appeals court had also told the CoC to take steps to continue negotiations with the settlement applicants under the relevant clauses of the settlement plan. The order allowed the CoC to negotiate and request higher bids.
In February, the Mumbai court of the National Company Law Tribunal had found the proposed second electronic auction to be in breach of bankruptcy rules and awarded Torrent Group the highest bidder under the first challenge mechanism. He had ordered the administrator to bring the process to its "logical conclusion."
