Supreme Court asks Jaypee Case to be transferred from NCLAT to itself; next hearing on August 31st

The Supreme Court of India on Thursday of last week ordered to transfer all the appeals of the debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech case which were pending before National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to itself. This order was passed by a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar, and it aims to have no further delay in execution of the approved resolution plan of National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) and to ensure that the home buyers get the possession of their homes at the earliest.

The controversy-ridden Wish Town project by Jaypee has been under the supervision by the interim monitoring committee since April 23 2020. The NBCC had filed a case in the NCLAT (the appellate body) as it was unsatisfied with the modifications made in its resolution plan as per the order by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Six Jaypee home buyers’ associations appealed to the SC last week against the NCLAT order issued in April. The order gave a conditional nod to state-owned-NBCC to implement its proposal to acquire Jaypee Infratech. It also allowed for the completion of around 20,000 stalled flats.

However, Homebuyers Associations says that “No construction is being undertaken by NBCC as of now as it is unhappy with the modifications made by the NCLAT in its resolution professional”. These associations are represented by senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, who is assisted by advocates from P&A Law offices, namely Amit Kumar Mishra, Partner, Shashank Manish, and his team.

In an article by Moneycontrol, Shashank Manish states that "their primary desire from the SC is to save the order, start construction, and deliver the possession of the units. He further observed that no construction work had taken place in the last five-six months on site due to the pandemic. Furthermore, he said that “Homebuyers are elated and are hopeful that construction work will begin soon. They are hopeful that the apex court would pass a favourable order.”

The next hearing of the case will be on 31st August in the Supreme Court.

What went down in the Jaypee Case?

On 3rd March, State-owned NBCC had gotten a go-ahead from the NCLT to acquire debt-laden Jaypee Infratech through an insolvency process in line with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016. The tribunal had ordered that the Rupees Seven hundred fifty crores deposited by Jaypee Infratech's parent firm Jaiprakash Associates Ltd (JAL) with the registry of the Supreme Court would be included in the resolution plan. This meant that NBCC would be aided faster to finish the non-completed projects of the Jaypee Group.

 Jaypee Infratech went into an insolvency process in August 2017. Then, Mr. Anuj Jain was appointed as an Insolvency Resolution Profession (IRP) to conduct the insolvency process and manage the affairs of Jaypee. In December of 2019, a committee of creditors (CoC) under the law approved the resolution plan. The CoC comprised of 13 banks and around 21,000 homebuyers.

NBCC's proposal was approved by the lenders in the third round of the bidding process to find a buyer for Jaypee Infratech. Through its bid, NBCC proposed to complete over 20,000 pending flats in housing projects launched by Jaypee Infratech in Noida and Greater Noida.