Challenging the “illegal” reduction in its claim by the erstwhile resolution professional (RP) within the Jet Airways revival plan, the Punjab commercial bank (PNB) has moved the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) citing discrimination.
The NCLAT on Thursday issued notices to RP Ashish Chhawchharia and therefore the committee of creditors on PNB’s plea to line aside the insolvency court’s approval of the airline’s revival plan. it’s posted the matter for further hearing on September 21 In its appeal before the NCLAT, PNB argued that NCLT should have heard its application on the difficulty of reduction of its claim by Rs 202 crore before passing an order on the revival plan.
The Committee of Creditors gave its nod to the Jet Airways resolution plan last October while the NCLT approved it in June. consistent with the plan, the Kalrock-Jalan consortium can pay Rs 380 crore to financial creditors, as against the admitted claims of about Rs 7,800 crore Last September, PNB had submitted a revised claim of Rs 994 crore. Its claim amount was reduced to the extent of the fair value of shares it held in Jet Airways.
PNB, however, questioned the move and said the RP’s decision to scale back the claim amount was arbitrary and beyond his jurisdiction. The bank said its claim are often depart only upon sale of pledged shares and can’t be reduced merely upon invocation PNB is that the largest shareholder in Jet Airways with 26 per cent stake which it secured after invocation of a pledge in 2019.
“The consent by the appellant (PNB to the revival plan) amounts to forced consent as just in case of dissenting financial creditors the resolution plan entails only minimum payment of liquidation value. This differential treatment of assenting and dissenting financial creditors is discriminatory,” it said.
Further, PNB argued that the resolution plan was discriminatory because it treated it on a par with its promoter Naresh Goyal and Etihad Airways and proposes a payment of a hard and fast sum of Rs 10,000. All other public shareholders will get one share for each 100 shares held by them within the airline upon restructuring of capital structure.
“The approval of the resolution plan by the adjudicating authority (NCLT) is infirm both thanks to contravention of law and material irregularity by the resolution professional,” said senior advocate and extra lawman Aman Lekhi, who appeared for PNB While Chhawchharia denied comment, an airline source said PNB’s plea shouldn’t impact the airline’s revival because it was an inter-bank dispute on the quantity that ought to be paid to every creditor under the plan.
