Delhi High Court seeks reply of Centre on PIL seeking appointments at BIFR

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today sought a response of the Centre on a plea seeking steps for expeditiously appointing new members in the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction ( BIFR) to ensure proper adjudication of matters pertaining to revival of distressed entities.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw asked the Centre, the Ministry of Finance and BIFR to take instructions and file an affidavit with regard to issue within two weeks.

The matter will be heard on January 7, 2015. The PIL, filed by advocate Henna George, sought directions to the government to expeditiously appoint members in BIFR to avoid delay in disposal of matters related to industrial companies which need revival.

It said the Sick Industrial Companies Act (SICA) 1985 provided for appointment upto 14 members in BIFR, excluding the Chairman, but for the past one decade, a number of members have been restricted to three-four only, causing huge pendency of matters and immense loss and prejudice to the public.

Currently, there is the Chairman and two members in BIFR with only one functional bench.

"As a result thereto, there is huge pendency of matters and immense loss and prejudice is being caused to the public at large including the distressed entities, creditors, statutory authorities, shareholders and other concerned parties," it said.

The plea also claimed that in the current year, only a handful of the schemes have been sanctioned for the revival of the distressed industrial entities.

"There has been an adverse impact on the revival efforts of distressed entities, with schemes for revival being piled up for years," it said.