National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) | 30 May 2019

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday allowed the board of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) declare ‘amber’ companies as 'green' companies.

  • The new board at IL&FS had classified IL&FS group companies into three categories, namely ‘green’, ‘amber’ and ‘red’ based on their financial health and ability to service debt obligations to secured and unsecured creditors.
    • Red Companies: are those with no cash and not in a position to pay any creditor.
    • Amber companies: are those with enough to pay secured creditors but not unsecured creditors.
    • Green companies: are those firms which have enough money to service all their debts, to the secured as well as unsecured creditors.
  • So far, 55 companies have been placed under the green category and 13 have been placed under the amber category. A total of 82 companies have been placed under the red category, while 11 are yet to be classified.
  • NCLAT has allowed the board of IL&FS to declare 'amber' companies or those able to partially pay off their loans as ‘green’ companies or those that can continue to meet all their payment obligations.

National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)

  • It was constituted under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of National Company Law Tribunal.
    • NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by NCLT(s) under Section 61 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).
    • NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India under Section 202 and Section 211 of IBC.
  • NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal to hear and dispose of appeals against any direction issued or decision made or order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).