News: Supreme Court leaves it to NCLAT to decide how the remaining Supertech projects should be run-21-04-2026

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to decide whether a court-appointed committee should oversee all 30 projects of stressed developer Supertech Limited or only the 16 housing projects already given to NBCC (India) Ltd. The direction follows the suspension of the interim resolution professional (IRP) appointed for the company over alleged misconduct.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi asked NCLAT to consider whether one committee should amalgamate and manage all 30 projects or be limited to 16. Earlier this year, the court had handed 16 of the 30 projects to NBCC. On April 10, the amicus curiae told the court that the IBBI had suspended IRP Hitesh Goel for two years last month.

Because the projects were overseen by an apex committee and project-specific committees headed by the IRP, the court had tentatively proposed a committee of experts for all existing projects. Financial creditors, land-owning authorities and Supertech objected. With counsel for homebuyers, commercial buyers, NBCC and creditors saying NCLAT can examine the issue, the bench referred it there. It clarified that the April 10 order expressed no opinion on merits, and allowed the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities, which are not parties to the proceedings, to make submissions before NCLAT.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, for Supertech, said the company did not oppose replacing the IRP but that the issue of projects other than the 16 is before NCLAT. ASG N Venkatraman, for NBCC, said the same, and other lawyers said NCLAT was unwilling to proceed after the April 10 order. The CJI said the order aimed at smooth administration and was not meant to suggest anything would be taken away.

The amicus said the IRP-headed committee handles the projects and dues of Rs 9,000 crore are pending, and that work is in limbo even on the 16 projects, needing urgent orders. The court said replacing the IRP is paramount and NCLAT will assess inter-dependency and consider separating some projects. Supertech had sought recall of the April 10 order, arguing the panel should be limited to 16 projects. The amicus noted that on February 5, when approving NCLAT’s December 2024 order giving 16 projects to NBCC, the court had allowed him to return if there was any impediment.