The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has reserved order on Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL), and directed both JSW Steel and Tata Steel to file written submissions, if any, by next Wednesday.

A two-member Bench headed by Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya on Thursday completed the hearing in the case filed by Tata Steel alleging that lenders of BPSL allowed rival JSW Steel to revise its bid upward twice after Tata Steel was declared the highest bidder.

Initially, JSW Steel had placed a bid of ₹11,000 crore for BPSL while Tata Steel bid ₹17,000 crore. Late entrant Liberty House bid ₹18,500 crore. Subsequently, JSW Steel revised its bid to ₹19,700 crore, pipping both its rivals to win the two-thirds vote of BPSL lenders.

BPSL owes over ₹48,500 crore to a consortium of lenders led by Punjab National Bank, and is one of the 12 large companies identified by the RBI for early resolution. It operates a 3.5 million tonne steel plant in Odisha.

Meanwhile, BPSL promoter Sanjay Singal has challenged the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in general and Section 29A in particular. The section bars defaulting promoters from bidding for stressed assets.

Singal has also questioned the retrospective applicability of Section 29A on BPSL’s resolution since an amendment was introduced in November last year, while the steel company was admitted for insolvency in July. He claims the clause violates his right to equality before law.

‘Discount sale’

In his petition, Singhal also said that by excluding the promoter from bidding for his own asset, BPSL’s resolution process has been converted into its sale at a huge discounted rate based on its liquidation value of ₹9,700 crore, instead of its going concern value of ₹25,000 crore.

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