The new bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted Katra Realtors under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) following an application filed by IL&FS Financial Services Ltd.Delhi-based Katra Realtors stood as guarantor for listed real estate developer Ansal Properties and Infrastructure (Ansal API), which is also currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings.
Ansal API has admitted debts of over Rs 571 crore, while IL&FS Financial Services had approached the tribunal against Katra Realtors over its corporate guarantee to Ansal API of around Rs 23 crore.
The division bench of Judicial Member Manni Sankariah Shanmuga Sundaram and Technical Member Atul Chaturvedi in their admission order noted that simultaneous proceedings can be initiated against the main borrower and the corporate guarantor.The tribunal has appointed Chandar Prakash as the company’s interim resolution professional to handle the resolution process.
The origin of the dispute lies in the loan agreement between IL&FS Financial Services and Ansal API in March 2016. Ansal Properties and Infrastructure had borrowed around Rs 50 crore from IL&FS Financial Services, and Katra Realtors had provided an unconditional, absolute and irrevocable guarantee for the debt. Subsequently, Ansal API defaulted in paying its dues in November 2017.
In 2019, the lender recalled the entire facility sanctioned to Ansal API and also demanded Rs 124 crore from the company and all its corporate guarantors, including Katra Realtors. The lender has also approached the tribunal to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against the developer. The developer later attempted to settle the dispute, and that filing was withdrawn by the lender in 2021. Also in 2023, the developer had tried to revise the settlement plan.
But even after persistent defaults, the lender again approached the tribunal in 2024 to get Ansal API admitted under the CIRP.
“The corporate guarantor (Katra Realtors), like the respondent, is responsible for the debt lent by the principal borrower (Ansal API), and the right to proceed against both the principal borrower and the guarantor is equally,” the NCLT said while admitting the application against the company.
IL&FS Financial Services alleged that Ansal API had failed to secure loans of Rs. 257 crores. Following this, the tribunal admitted the company to the bankruptcy process in February 2025.
Earlier this year, Kusum Ansal, wife of Ansal group promoter Sushil Ansal, sold her property in Delhi’s Lutyens for Rs 241 crore at a time when the group was facing multiple lawsuits. The transaction was conducted by a lender under the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act.
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