The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has dismissed a petition filed by around 368 homebuyers who had purchased properties from Lavasa Corporation.
The petition had alleged misconduct in the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of the company and mistreatment of the homebuyers as a class of creditors.
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The homebuyers, in their petition, had sought the tribunal’s intervention to declare the resolution plan submitted by Darwin Platform Infrastructure in violation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and prayed to reject the revival plan, which was earlier approved by the lenders of the company.
When the company was admitted into insolvency, it owed more than Rs 6,200 crore to its financial creditors.
Set up in 2000 by the Ajit Gulabchand-led HCC, Lavasa was developing the country’s first privately developed city spread over 20,000 acres in the Mulshi and Velhe areas in Maharasthra’s Pune district, around 180 km from Mumbai. However, the project has been entangled in various issues, including environmental violations and land acquisition. After Lavasa and its subsidiaries defaulted on debt obligations, the lenders sought debt resolution through the NCLT in August 2018 under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
Lavasa was held jointly by HCC with a 68.7% stake, Avantha Group 17.18%, Venkateshwara Hatcheries 7.81% and Vithal Maniar 6.29%.
Homebuyers submitted that the liquidation value derived and presented to the CoC is notional and does not represent the fair value and that the resolution professional completely neglected his duty to calculate the liquidation value for each homebuyer before putting the plan to vote.
The NCLT Mumbai bench is of the view that this is a belated stage for the homebuyers to raise allegations against the authorised representative, especially after the CoC has voted in favour of the resolution plan with an overwhelming majority of 96.14% voting share.
