Liberty must pull out bid for Amtek Arm, NCLAT says

NEW DELHI: An appellate tribunal has upheld an order by the Chandigarh bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), directing Liberty House to withdraw its bid for ARGL, a subsidiary of Amtek Auto. It has, however, mentioned that observations by the NCLT against Liberty House should not be construed as findings that make them ineligible to bid for other stressed assets.

The NCLT had called out Liberty House for its “casual” approach and ordered it to pay Rs 1 lakh to ARGL for its conduct after it refused to submit a bank guarantee on emerging the successful bidder.

Liberty House did not oppose the directive to withdraw its resolution plan but appealed against the adverse observations made by the NCLT and the cost imposed on the group.


The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) modified the NCLT order, converting the cost of conduct to cost imposed for litigation, to be paid to ARGL.

Prior to passing the order, the two-member bench led by Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya said that Liberty House was a “failure party” and had been dragging its feet after taking up matters in the NCLAT.