Impact of Amendments in IBC on CIRP and Liquidation Process

The session opened with Ms. Tanya Anand framing how the IBC landscape has shifted since 2021, before Mr. Azeem Tariq Khan walked participants through the tightening of CIRP admission timelines and the practical consequences for resolution professionals managing live matters before NCLT benches. The discussion drew directly from active assignments — including how benches in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru have approached Section 7 and Section 9 admissions differently, and what that has meant for financial creditors waiting on admission orders that now routinely cross the 14-day statutory window. Adv. Prashant Tripathi took the conversation into the jurisprudence shaping Committee of Creditors conduct, covering the expanded accountability standards emerging from recent NCLAT rulings and the narrowing scope for commercial wisdom challenges. The treatment of operational creditors in the resolution waterfall received detailed attention, particularly in light of how recent plan approvals have handled dissenting financial creditors versus operational creditor claims. Panellists also addressed the practical limitations of PPIRP for MSME debtors — why uptake has remained modest despite the framework's design, and what promoters of stressed MSMEs in tier-1 and tier-2 markets should weigh before electing the pre-pack route. The liquidation segment examined the revised asset realisation sequence, the position of secured creditors who opt out under Section 52, and the procedural discipline now expected in voluntary liquidations under Section 59. Mr. Khan shared observations from realisations handled by his firm, including how stakeholder consultation committees have changed the rhythm of liquidator decision-making and where IBBI's recent regulations have closed gaps that practitioners had previously navigated through tribunal directions. The closing exchange returned to what financial institutions, resolution applicants and in-house teams should be recalibrating in active matters — from how CoC voting thresholds are being tested in court, to the documentation discipline now required when secured creditors elect to stand outside the liquidation estate. Participants raised questions on specific pending matters, and the panel addressed how recent rulings might apply to ongoing CIRPs where resolution plans are under CoC consideration or awaiting NCLT sanction.