In a big victory for Punjab National Bank (PNB), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) bench on Friday increased admitted claims of the public sector lender from Rs 752 crore to Rs 956 crore.
According to PNB, it had submitted an initial financial claim of Rs 963.47 crore and a revised claim of Rs 956.11 crore. But the resolution professional reduced the claim by Rs 202.09 crore.
However, Kalrock-Jalan Consortium may challenge the NCLAT order in the Supreme Court. PNB is the largest shareholder in Jet Airways with a 26 percent stake which it secured after the invocation of a pledge in 2019.
The once-storied carrier is now under the ownership of the Jalan-Kalrock consortium and its air operator certificate was revalidated by aviation regulator DGCA in May this year.
This comes after the bank moved the NCLAT last year against the approval of bids for the defunct airline Jet Airways. The bank challenged the approval of the Resolution Plan by Kalrock-Jalan Consortium on June 22, 2021, by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
The bank is aggrieved by the reduction in its claim amount by around Rs 202 crore by the Resolution Professional, which according to it, is in complete violation of the processes as enumerated under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
Financial distress forced Jet Airways, which flew for more than two decades, to suspend operations on April 17, 2019, and a consortium of lenders, led by the
State Bank of India (SBI), filed an insolvency petition in June 2019, to recover outstanding dues worth over Rs 8,000 crore.
First Published: Oct 21, 2022 4:11 PM IST
