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PHDCCI organized a Conference on Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code on 19th  August 2023 in PHD House New Delhi. Dr. UK Chaudhary, Sr. Advocate & President, NCLT Bar Association mentioned that there have been a number of legislations in the past on sickness and revival, but all failed completely. After so many failures, and so much pile up of NPAs; IBC is the one that has achieved success for the creditors. He emphasised on the challenges, viz. structure under IBC does not recognize operational creditors and it only recognizes financial creditors; supremacy of the COC; Section 60 (5) is the cause for most of the delays and preferential treatment to secured creditors under Section 52 and 53.

Shri LN Gupta, Member (T), National Company Law Tribunal, Delhi Bench submitted that we should organize such sessions more frequently so that we put our heads together and work together for the betterment of IBC which is still at a revolving stage. He mentioned challenges before IPs, creditors, IBBI etc. All challenges are different from the challenges we face as the adjudicating authority. It’s a dynamic legislation which has been amended six times; we will very soon see the seventh amendment, he mentioned. He highlighted achievements of IBC as 70% of the applications have been disposed of and in the Merger and Amalgamation cases 93% of them are disposed off.

Shri PSN Prasad, Member (J), National Company Law Tribunal, Delhi Bench emphasized on not treating IBC as a recovery mechanism. He advised the participants to read the preamble of IBC carefully, which states “Timely resolution and maximization of value of assets“. The objective of a law is always in the preamble. He appealed to legal community to bring only justifiable and sustainable cases as advocates are the officers of court and should not encourage frivolous applications.

Mr. GP Madaan, Chair, NCLT & IBC Committee PHDCCI in his welcome address mentioned that IBC came 7 years back and challenges faced are many which start from the day one when from filing the application whether u/s 7, 9 or 10; whether the application is barred by limitation; principles of natural justice have to be followed which certainly takes time which is challenging. Challenges also include acceptance of the claim, constitution of COC, preparation of information memorandum, cooperation from management and members of COC, various stage of resolution plans, implementation of Resolution Plan.

Mr. Karan Mehra, Co-Chair, NCLT &  IBC Committee mentioned that the objective of PHDCCI NCLT Committee is to bring reforms in the IBC Code and we need to think out of the box. He further added, we need to reach out to every stakeholder which is just not the Bench, Bar, AA, IP, etc. but a stakeholder is also a student who assist in delivery of justice. Mr. Mehra also presented the Web Portal of NCLT & IBC Committee (www.ncltibcphdcci.in) of PHDCCI which got unveiled by the Honourable Technical & Judicial Members of NCLT Bench Delhi.

Mr. Abhishek Anand, Co-Chair, NCLT & IBC Committee PHDCCI in his concluding speech mentioned that we all are working for the success of the implementation of IBC. The conference has been attended by more than 100 stakeholders.