Vedanta company urges SC to dismiss Venugopal Dhoot's appeal

New Delhi: Vedanta Group-owned Twinstar Technologies has pleaded the Supreme Court to reject an appeal filed by former Videocon Industries chairman Venugopal Dhoot against its bankruptcy-court approved bid to acquire the company and its 12 group entities.

Lenders and the National Company Law Tribunal have approved Twinstar's bid to acquire the Videocon companies for ₹2,962 crore under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Dhoot challenged this in the Supreme Court and sought a direction to the lenders to accept his ₹31,789 crore resolution plan. On April 17, the top court sought Twinstar's response to the appeal.

In its response, Twinstar claimed that Dhoot has been a "fencesitter who has waited till the eleventh hour" to make a bid, and has always tried to "disrupt and derail" the insolvency proceedings through "vexatious and frivolous" legal proceedings.


It said the former Videocon chairman filed his latest appeal on August 8, 2022, but did not diligently pursue it or took steps towards the issuance of notices despite the case being listed on 17 occasions.

According to Twin Star, Dhoot never challenged the decision of Videocon lenders to reject his proposal under IBC Section 12A, which allows withdrawal of insolvency proceedings. He even called for a fresh information memorandum and expression of interest by including certain foreign oil and gas assets, and in the alternative, prayed for a direction to the lenders to reconsider and approve his proposal, it added.

In his petition, Dhoot argued that his resolution plan entailed a "zero haircut" to lenders and the approved resolution plan of Twinstar compromised the interest of corporate debtors.