National Company Law Appellate Tribunal Allows Dutch Court Administrator To Attend Jet Creditors’ Meetings

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has allowed the Dutch court administrator of Jet Airways to attend meetings of the bankrupt airline's Committee of Creditors (CoC).

The NCLAT order has finalized the cross-border insolvency protocol for the airline.

The order came after the counsel representing both the resolution professional (RP) of Jet Airways and the Dutch court administrator informed the appellate tribunal recently that both sides have agreed to co-operate in the insolvency proceedings of the airline.

The three-member bench headed by the NCLAT Chairman S J Mukhopadhaya said that the Dutch administrator is equivalent to the resolution professional in India, and has the right to attend CoC meetings under the law as well.

In the NCLAT’s previous hearing too, Mukhopadhaya had observed that it is the right of the Dutch administrator to attend the CoC meetings and both sides should go together.

Incidentally, the debt-ridden Jet Airways faces insolvency proceedings in The Netherlands as well. It was declared bankrupt there after it had failed to pay two of its European creditors. The Dutch court subsequently appointed a bankruptcy administrator.

However, earlier, the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had rejected the Dutch administrator's plea to recognize their proceedings, after which the Dutch administrator had approached the NCLAT.

It may be recalled that the grounded Jet Airways owes more than Rs 8,000 crore to its lenders. Besides its lenders, the airline is estimated to have a total liability of about Rs 25,000 crore which includes dues of its operational creditors.

On April 17, Jet Airways had announced the suspension of all flight services after it failed to secure interim funding to maintain even the barest minimum of its operations.