The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted the Anil Ambani-linked Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) for corporate insolvency resolution proceedings.
The NCLT’s Mumbai bench passed the order recently based on a petition filed by Invent Assets Securitisation & Reconstruction Pvt Ltd, which is RHFL’s financial creditor.
The NCLT, comprising judicial member Nilesh Sharma and technical member Sameer Kakar, found that Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL) defaulted on a debt amounting to Rs 7.80 crore, which includes interest, on December 4, 2024.
The financial debt originated from an Inter-Corporate Loan Facility Agreement dated April 1, 2023, with Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) for a sanctioned limit of Rs 9.50 crore. Out of that amount, RCFL initially disbursed Rs 4.85 crore to RHFL. After a court-approved scheme of arrangement in May 2024, RCFL’s lending business was demerged into Authum Investment and Infrastructure Ltd.
Later, Authum disbursed an additional Rs 2.15 crore to the Anil Ambani-linked RHFL between May 2024 and November 2024, taking the total disbursed amount to Rs 7 crore.
Yet, despite acknowledging the debt through balance confirmation letters and reflecting it in its financial statements, RHFL failed to repay the amount by the due date of June 30, 2024.
In December 2024, Authum assigned the debt to Invent Assets Securitisation & Reconstruction Pvt Ltd, which issued a recall notice demanding immediate payment. RHFL’s request for a one-year extension was rejected by Invent Assets, which led to the filing of an insolvency petition by Invent Assets.
However, the Anil Ambani-linked Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) had argued that the petition filed by Invent Assets was “misconceived” and “premature”, claiming that the financial creditor Invent Assets misused the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) as “a tool of coercion”.
The NCLT’s Mumbai bench dismissed these defences by RHFL and stated that the existence of debt and default has been clearly established and is not in dispute.
The NCLT mandated that RHFL must extend full cooperation to the newly appointed Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) and that the corporate insolvency resolution process will now proceed with the formation of a Committee of Creditors to evaluate resolution plans for the company’s future.