New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday rejected two petitions filed by Vedanta Limited, in which the company had challenged the approval of Adani Enterprises Limited's bid for the acquisition of debt-laden Jaiprakash Associates Limited under the insolvency process.
News Agency, PTI, reported that a two-member bench comprising Chairperson Ashok Bhushan and Member Technical Barun Mitra said: "No grounds have been made out by the appellant (Vedanta) to interfere with the decision of the adjudicating Authority (NCLT)."
"There is no merit in the appeal. Both appeals are dismissed. There shall be no orders to pass," said NCLAT.
The appellate tribunal observed that the Committee of Creditors had arrived at its decision after evaluating the resolution plans in their entirety and exercising its commercial judgment.
PTI further quoted NCLAT, stating there has been "no material irregularity committed by Resolution Professional while conducting the plan resolution process."
Furthermore, NCLAT also dismissed Vedanta's plea, where the enterprise had questioned the evaluation metrics adopted and had said its bid was Rs 3,400 crore higher in gross value terms and roughly Rs 500 crore more in net present value compared to the Adani Group's bid.
PTI reported that rejecting this, NCLAT said "decision of CoC not approving the resolution plan of the appellant with a higher plan value of Rs 3,400 crores and NPV of Rs 500 crore as compared to plan of respondent No 3 (Adani) cannot be said to be arbitrary or perverse."
On March 17, the National Company Law Tribunal approved Adani Enterprises Limited's ₹14,535-crore resolution plan for acquiring debt-ridden Jaiprakash Associates Limited through the insolvency process, a decision later challenged by Vedanta Limited before the appellate tribunal.
After hearing arguments from Vedanta, the Resolution Professional, the Committee of Creditors (CoC), and Adani Enterprises, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal reserved its order on April 23.
The objection of Vedanta to the criteria of assessment that were used by the lenders of JAL was that even though their offer was higher, they picked up the lower offer of ₹3,400 crore made by Adani Enterprises based on the commercial judgment of the lenders.
Notably, on March 24, the appeals body had rejected staying the order issued by NCLT regarding the plan of Adani Group, although it was mentioned that the implementation of the resolution plan would be subject to the result of Vedanta's case hearings.
However, the order has been questioned in the Indian Supreme Court, where it was again rejected, but in this case, it was noted that all major decisions of the monitoring committee should be made with the consent of the tribunal.
Adani Enterprises had been chosen as a winner, having received more than 89 percent voting in favor from its creditors against bids made by Dalmia Bharat Limited and Vedanta.
PTI stated the Committee of Creditors maintained that the resolution process fully complied with provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), emphasizing that bids were assessed on multiple parameters, including upfront payment, feasibility, implementation capability, and overall viability, rather than headline valuation alone.
JAL got admitted to the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process in June 2024, following its default on debts amounting to about ₹57,185 crore.
Some of its key assets include real estate projects such as Jaypee Greens in Greater Noida, some parcels of land in Wishtown in Noida, and the Jaypee International Sports City, which is located adjacent to the soon-to-be-built Noida International Airport.
Besides that, it also has commercial office spaces in the Delhi-NCR region, hotel projects in Delhi-NCR, Mussoorie, and Agra, four cement factories based in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, leaseholds of limestone mines, and other valuable interests in its subsidiaries, like Jaiprakash Power Ventures Limited and Yamuna Expressway Tolling Limited.