A larger, five-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has put the August 25 ruling of a smaller tribunal bench on hold – a decision that had come out of the personal insolvency proceedings against Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra, according to Bar and Bench.

This expanded bench, made up of Tribunal President Justice (retd.) Anupinder Singh Grewal, Judicial Members Bachu Venkat Balaram Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, and Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi, announced that the earlier decision lacked a clear majority position. 

As a result, the panel opted to rehear the matter from scratch and sent notices to everyone involved. It also suspended the August 25 order and barred Chandra from transferring or disposing of any assets, whether directly or through other parties.

At the heart of the case is a debt-repayment proposal Chandra put forward in insolvency proceedings brought against him by Indiabulls Housing Finance under Section 95 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Chandra’s proposal offered creditors Rs 6.25 crore against claims totaling Rs 22,006.57 crore, with a further Rs 25 lakh set aside to cover the costs of the insolvency process.

The NCLT order had drawn attention for the near 99.97 percent reduction in the admitted claims. Chandra, however, disputed the way the figure had been presented, saying he was not a borrower but a personal guarantor for loans taken by Essel Group entities.

In a video statement on August 28, Chandra said the claims against him as a personal guarantor amounted to Rs 3,992 crore, and not Rs 22,000 crore. He said Rs 620 crore of this had already been settled, while borrowing entities had offered a further Rs 1,063 crore. According to Chandra, the companies for which he had provided personal guarantees had repaid around Rs 43,000 crore so far.

He had also accused Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and his media network TV18 of spreading “misinformation” about the case.

Reliance Industries rejected the allegations.

“Reliance Group has noted with dismay the baseless remarks by Essel Group chairman Shri Subhash Chandra,” the company said, strongly denying the allegations and insinuations against its media entities. “Our media brands have never been used to attack anyone, nor will they ever be.”