Bhushan Power deal rejection: JSW Steel files review petition in Supreme Court

Some of the lenders to BPSL have also filed separate review petitions. The court’s decision has raised concerns over the finality of resolution processes under the IBC and the fate of already-implemented plans.

The May 2 ruling not only nullified JSW Steel’s resolution plan for BPSL but also ordered the company’s liquidation, despite the transaction having been executed and the steelmaker taking operational control.

While ordering the liquidation, the biggest in the corporate history, a bench of Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma lambasted the delay on the part of JSW Steel to implement the resolution plan and said the Committee of Creditors (CoC) failed to exercise its commercial wisdom while approving the Resolution Plan.

SC had said JSW even after the approval of its plan by the NCLAT, wilfully contravened and not complied with the terms of the said approved Resolution Plan for a period of about two years, which had frustrated the very object and purpose of the IBC, and consequently had vitiated the CIR proceedings of the corporate debtor-BPSL. “In the instant case, JSW did not implement the Resolution Plan for about two years since its approval by the NCLAT, though there was no legal impediment in implementing the same. Such flagrant violation of the terms of the Resolution Plan, has frustrated the very object and purpose of the Code,” the Supreme Court had said.

After obtaining the approval of its Resolution Plan from CoC by presenting a rosy picture, misguiding the CoC, and defeating the rights of other resolution applicants, JSW did not respect and honour the said commitments, the SC said. On the contrary, it tried its level best to delay the implementation of the Resolution Plan without any cogent reason or justification, the order said.