SETBACK FOR ZEE’S SUBHASH CHANDRA AS NCLT STAYS SETTLEMENT ORDER

Tue 01 September 2026:

The five-member bench, while issuing notices to all the parties, also restrained Chandra from directly or indirectly selling or alienating any of his properties till further orders.

New Delhi: Less than a week after a single member – acting as tie-breaker after a two-member bench remained divided on the contours of the orders – allowed Zee Group founder and former Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra to settle insolvency proceedings against him by paying just about Rs 6.5 crore against pending demand of more than Rs 22,000 crore, a five-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) today (September 1) stayed the August 25 order.

The five-member bench, while issuing notices to all the parties, also restrained Chandra from directly or indirectly selling or alienating any of his properties till further orders.

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The order by a single member, who had accepted Chandra’s plea to settle the personal guarantee to the loans taken by his group company by paying a measly Rs 6.5 crore out of the total admitted liability of over Rs 22,000 crore, had led to a massive uproar, with Chandra even accusing Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani of being behind his travails.

Chandra had claimed that while he had not personally borrowed Rs 22,000 crore from banks or financial institutions, including PSU institutions, the amount of Rs 22,000 crore referred to personal guarantees given by him for loans taken by various borrowing entities.

Adding to the controversy was the fact that some of the lenders who voted in favour of settling the debt by accepting a pittance traced their origin to companies owned or managed by his close relatives.

Yesterday, on the directions of NCLT president Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal, the NCLT decided to constitute a five-Member bench, a first in the history of the NCLT, to look into the issue afresh.

The NLCT view is that while one member had approved the settlement with conditions, another had rejected it entirely, while the third had approved it with different terms. Therefore, it was recorded that no majority verdict had emerged.

This article is republished from The WIre. Read the original article.