On Thursday (29th October 2020), the Supreme Court transferred all petitions, pending in the various high court of the country, challenging provisions of personal insolvency under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to itself.
No more writ petitions on this issue will be entertained by the High courts as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
This order was passed by a bench of three judges: Justice L Nageswara, Justices Hemant Gupta, and Justice Ajay Rastogi. They added that all interim directions passed in pending cases will continue till further orders.
The next hearing for this case will be heard on 2nd December 2020.
On Wednesday (28th October 2020), the bench had said that it would pass orders on a batch of pleas filed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) seeking transfer of petitions challenging the provisions of IBC with regard to personal insolvency.
Madhavi Diwan, Additional Solicitor General who is representing IBBI, had apprised the bench that all pending petition raised similar issues and challenged the provisions of the IBC with regard to personal insolvency and to avoid conflicting orders by different high courts, it would be best if all petitions are transferred to the top court for final adjudication.
State Bank of India was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Arguing for the transfer, he said that it would be better for the apex court to rule to avoid contradictory judgments as the issues raised in the pending petitions were of national importance. He also said that it was a concern that the issue might not be decided quickly enough by the high courts.
The personal guarantors’ counsels have opposed the transfer contending that the high courts should decide the issue as then the top court would have the benefit of perusing the judgments of the former.
The case of Anil Ambani and that of Sanjay Singal, who is the former managing director of Bhushan Power & Steel Limited which is a bankrupt steel company that is engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of steel products, is also on the list of pending personal insolvency cases.
