Gayatri Projects insolvency to go ahead, SC throws out promoters’ plea

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The Supreme Court has quashed a plea of the Hyderabad-headquartered Gayatri Projects’ promoters against a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order that upheld the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of the bankrupt infrastructure firm.

On January 20, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Ajay Rastogi and Bela M Trivedi heard and dismissed the appeal filed by promoters led by TV Sandeep Kumar Reddy.

“We find no ground to interfere with the impugned order passed by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal,” said the court. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and others appeared for the promoters.

Early this month, NCLAT’s Chennai bench turned down the promoters’ appeal against the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) order to initiate insolvency proceedings against the firm.

Following the order, the lenders on January 14 invited expressions of interest (EoIs) for the resolution of the bankrupt infrastructure firm, which is into roads, railways, land development, power, irrigation and mining projects, among others.

The firm, with an annual turnover of Rs 3,463 crore and Rs 5,864 crore worth of assets on a standalone basis in the financial year 2019, was admitted for CIRP proceedings in November 2022 by the NCLT on an application filed by the State Bank of India under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. The public sector bank claimed that the infrastructure firm defaulted on Rs 242.33 crore loans.