Home HEALTH NCLT admits insolvency plea against Mumbai’s Four Care Hospital

NCLT admits insolvency plea against Mumbai’s Four Care Hospital

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The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted city-based Four Care Hospital under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) in an application filed by Standard Chartered Bank.

The tribunal has also appointed Rajan Garg as its resolution professional.

In this case, originally the company’s promoter had availed a loan facility from Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL). Subsequently, that loan was acquired by Standard Chartered Bank.

“From the facts and circumstances and the documents produced by the financial creditor, we are of the considered view that the petitioner has been able to establish that the debtor was granted a loan,” said a division bench of judicial member Kuldip Kumar Kareer and technical member Anil Raj Chellan in the January 22 order. “It has further been proved that the petition has also been filed within the period of limitation. Therefore, the Petition deserves to be admitted under Section 7 of the Code (IBC).”

In this case, the company’s promoter had availed a Rs 5.31-crore loan against property from DHFL. Subsequently, the loan was taken over by the local subsidiary of the British bank in 2019. The company defaulted in April 2022 and later its lender Standard Chartered Bank approached the tribunal last year.

Before the admission, the company argued in the tribunal through its counsel that the lender had failed to establish any occurrence of ‘date of default’, as mandated under Section 7 (5) of the Code read with Regulation 2(D) of the IBBI (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Regulations, 2016.Countering this, the lender argued that the debtor company neither disputed the execution of the loan agreement and availing of the loan, nor the creation of security in favour of the financial creditor.This is the second such hospital in the city to face an insolvency resolution process. Currently, Sevenhills Healthcare, the hospital where superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s granddaughter Aaradhya Bachchan was born, is also undergoing an insolvency resolution process.

“Companies that are ‘going concerns’ in the service sector, such as healthcare or hospitals, are in good demand from the investors and are more likely to get revived through an insolvency process compared with companies in the manufacturing sector,” said Faiza Dhanani, partner at law firm Cue Legal.

In 2022, the Bengaluru bench of the NCLT, in a similar case, had also approved Sri Kauvery Medical Care (India) Ltd’s acquisition of Yashomati Hospitals through the resolution process. In 2019, the tribunal also approved the acquisition of Bhilai Scan and Research Pvt Ltd (BSR) Diagnostics Ltd by the US-based Tri-County Premier Hearing Services Inc.