Mumbai: The Delhi High Court<\/a> on Thursday asked the Ministry of Finance<\/a> and the Reserve Bank of India<\/a> (RBI) to consider bringing in parity in certain sections of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and the Sarfaesi Act, which has created hurdles in the resolution plans of bankrupt telcos Reliance Communications<\/a> (RCom) and Aircel.
The High Court<\/a> was hearing a writ petition filed by asset reconstruction company UVARCL<\/a> against a show cause notice issued by the RBI in which the regulator had threatened to cancel its ARC license.
The court also directed the finance ministry to submit its response by April 18.
In an earlier hearing, Justice Navin Chawla had held that mere submission of resolution plan cannot be held illegal and stayed RBI’s proceedings in the matter.
“The court has advised the ministry of finance and the RBI to come up with their views on the matter and consider bringing consistency in these two laws,” said a person aware with the matter.
The matter will next be heard on May 19. Both RBI and UVARCL did not respond to ET’s queries.
According to the Sarfaesi Act (Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Interest) asset reconstruction companies that take over stressed assets from lenders cannot infuse equity into an insolvent company at the resolution stage. They also cannot act as resolution applicants.
UVARCL’s stance is that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code — which allows for such investments — supersedes the rules stated in the Sarfaesi Act.
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