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NCLT forms five-member bench in Subhash Chandra insolvency case after split verdict

The National Company Law Tribunal has constituted a five-member bench to hear the personal insolvency case against Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra after a two-member bench found no majority opinion on his repayment plan. The case involves a ₹6.25 crore repayment offer against admitted claims of over ₹22,000 crore. Several lenders, including Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, and LIC Housing Finance, have also challenged the matter before the appellate tribunal.

By Tertius News AI Desk 2 distinct · 3 mastheads · 3 articles Version 2 Coverage Aug 31, 2026 Published 48m ago

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has constituted a five-member bench to decide the personal insolvency case against Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra, following a split verdict among tribunal members on his repayment plan. The development comes after a two-member bench held that no majority opinion had emerged on the proposal, according to Bar & Bench and other reports.

The dispute centres on Chandra’s repayment proposal of ₹6.25 crore against admitted claims of ₹22,006.57 crore. NCLT President Justice (retd) Anupinder Singh Grewal constituted the five-member bench comprising himself, Judicial Members Bachu Venkat Balaram Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, and Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi. The special bench is scheduled to hear the matter at 10.15 am on September 1.

Background: the split verdict

The case first came before a two-member bench comprising Judicial Member Ashok Kumar Bhardwaj and Technical Member Reena Sinha Puri. On August 31, the bench held that no final order could be passed based on the opinion delivered by third member Nilesh Sharma on August 25.

The two-member bench found that the three members had taken materially different positions on Chandra's repayment plan, as reported by Bar & Bench.

Bhardwaj had originally favoured approving the plan only in relation to creditors who supported it. He proposed allowing dissenting creditors, including banks and financial institutions, to continue pursuing independent remedies for recovery of their debts.

Puri, however, rejected the repayment plan after finding serious defects in the process followed by the resolution professional.

Third member’s opinion

Following the split verdict, the matter was referred to Judicial Member Nilesh Sharma under Section 419(5) of the Companies Act, 2013. On August 25, Sharma opined that the repayment plan should be approved. However, he excluded claims submitted through Anil Kumar on behalf of 960 individuals and Sunil Jain on behalf of 300 individuals.

Sharma directed the resolution professional to redistribute the amount allotted to these claims among the remaining eligible creditors.

When the matter returned to the original two-member bench, it held that Sharma had ‘consciously passed an independent order’ rather than agreeing entirely with either of the two original opinions, leaving the tribunal without a clear majority decision.

Appeal before NCLAT

LIC Housing Finance has challenged Sharma's August 25 order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), according to Livemint. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought an urgent hearing on August 31, arguing that allowing the order to continue would defeat the purpose of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The appeal is also scheduled to be heard on September 1.

Separately, The Hindu Business Line reported that Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, and LIC Housing Finance have jointly challenged the order before the NCLAT. Both the NCLT’s special bench and the NCLAT are scheduled to hear the matter on September 1.

How each outlet told it

A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.

Bar and Bench

Framing: The tone is neutral and factual, reporting the procedural developments without emotional language.

as of Aug 31, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

Facts Included:

NCLT President Justice (retd) Anupinder Singh Grewal has constituted a 5-member bench comprising himself, Judicial Members Bachu Venkat Balaram Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, and Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi.
On August 31, a 2-member bench comprising Judicial Member Ashok Kumar Bhardwaj and Technical Member Reena Sinha Puri held that no final order could be passed on the basis of the opinion delivered by third member Nilesh Sharma on August 25.
The 2-member bench found that the 3 members had taken materially different positions on the repayment plan.
Bhardwaj had originally favoured approving the plan only in relation to creditors who supported it.
He proposed allowing dissenting creditors, including banks and financial institutions, to continue pursuing independent remedies for recovery of their debts.
Puri, however, rejected the repayment plan after finding serious defects in the process followed by the resolution professional.
Following the split verdict, the matter was referred to Judicial Member Nilesh Sharma under Section 419(5) of the Companies Act, 2013.
On August 25, Sharma opined that the repayment plan should be approved.
However, he excluded claims submitted through Anil Kumar on behalf of 960 individuals and Sunil Jain on behalf of 300 individuals.
He directed the resolution professional to redistribute the amount allotted to these claims among the remaining eligible creditors.

Read the source article →

Livemint

Framing: The headline emphasizes the hurdle to Subhash Chandra's repayment plan and the formation of a five-member NCLT bench to decide the insolvency case.

as of Aug 31, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

Facts Included:

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has constituted a five-member bench to decide the personal insolvency case against Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra.
The five-member bench was constituted after a two-member bench held that no majority opinion had emerged on his repayment plan.
NCLT President Justice (retd) Anupinder Singh Grewal has constituted the five-member bench comprising himself, Judicial Members Bachvenkat Balaram Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, and Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi.
On August 31, a two-member bench comprising Judicial Member Ashok Kumar Bhardwaj and Technical Member Reena Sinha Puri held that no final order could be passed based on the opinion delivered by third member Nilesh Sharma on August 25.
The two-member bench found that the three members had taken materially different positions on Chandra's repayment plan.
Bhardwaj had originally favoured approving the plan only in relation to creditors who supported it.
He had proposed allowing dissenting creditors, including banks and financial institutions, to continue pursuing independent remedies for recovery of their debts.
Puri rejected the repayment plan after finding serious defects in the process followed by the resolution professional.
Following the split verdict, the matter was referred to Judicial Member Nilesh Sharma under Section 419(5) of the Companies Act, 2013.
On August 25, Sharma opined that the repayment plan should be approved.
However, he excluded claims submitted through Anil Kumar on behalf of 960 individuals and Sunil Jain on behalf of 300 individuals.
Sharma directed the resolution professional to redistribute the amount allotted to these claims among the remaining eligible creditors.
When the matter returned to the original two-member bench, it held that Sharma had 'consciously passed an independent order' rather than agreeing entirely with either of the two original opinions.
LIC Housing Finance has challenged Sharma's August 25 order before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought an urgent hearing on August 31, arguing that allowing the order to continue would defeat the purpose of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
The appeal is also scheduled to be heard on September 1.

Read the source article →

The Hindu Business Line

Framing: The headline reports the formation of a special NCLT bench for the Subhash Chandra insolvency case.

as of Aug 31, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

Facts Included:

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has constituted a five-member special bench to decide the personal insolvency case involving Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra.
The bench comprises Judicial Members Bachu Venkat Balaram Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, and Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi.
Earlier, a two-member bench held that no majority opinion had emerged even after the matter was referred to a third member.
Bhardwaj had favoured approving the repayment plan only for creditors who supported it, while allowing dissenting creditors to pursue independent recovery proceedings.
Puri rejected the plan, citing serious procedural deficiencies in the resolution process.
The matter was referred to Judicial Member Nilesh Sharma to resolve the split verdict.
Sharma supported approval of the repayment plan and directed the resolution professional to redistribute the allocated amount among eligible creditors.
When the case returned to the original bench, it held that Sharma had delivered an independent opinion rather than concurring with either of the two earlier views, leaving the tribunal without a clear majority decision.
The legal battle has reached the NCLAT, where Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, and LIC Housing Finance have jointly challenged the order.
Both the NCLT’s special bench and the NCLAT are scheduled to hear the matter on September 1.
The article is published on August 31, 2026.

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting that specific claim — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimThe National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has constituted a five-member bench to decide the personal insolvency case against Zee Group founder Subhash Chandra.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source (2 outlets · 2 distinct) via Livemint as of Aug 31, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC, The Hindu Business Line as of Aug 31, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC
ClaimThe NCLT bench comprises Judicial Members Bachu Venkat Balaram Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, and Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via Bar and Bench as of Aug 31, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

2 distinct · 3 mastheads · 3 articles consulted: Bar and Bench, Livemint, The Hindu Business Line 2 claims extracted Version 2 Written 2026-08-31