The move to revive ailing Incab Industries Ltd received a fillip on Monday when appeals filed by two ‘related party’ financial creditors of the company were dismissed as withdrawn by the Supreme Court.

The appeals were filed by petitioners Kamala Mills and Fasqua Investments Pvt Ltd, two constituents of the now dissolved committee of creditors, which had taken the decision to liquidate the cable maker.

On June 4, 2021, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had quashed the ongoing liquidation of Incab and ordered the re-start of the resolution process to find a new buyer for the company.

The apex company law court had also removed the then resolution professional (RP) turned liquidator Shashi Agarwal and asked the Calcutta bench of National Company Law Tribunal to appoint a new resolution professional. A separate appeal filed by Agarwal before the SC challenging the NCLAT order was also withdrawn during a previous hearing.

“Today’s development removes another hurdle to find a new owner for Incab which has sizable assets within its fold,” Akhilesh Srivastava, who represented the Incab workmen from Jamshedpur, said this evening.

A new RP has been appointed as the NCLAT order and the resolution process is ongoing.

The hearing on the matter went on for over two hours on Monday before the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Bela M. Trivedi. While senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi pleaded the case for Kamala Mills and Fasqua, Rishav Banerjee argued for the workmen from Calcutta led by Jayanta Banerjee, along with Srivastava.

“The NCLAT judgment has now attained finality as the Supreme Court decided not to interfere after the appellant decided to withdraw the appeal following observations from the bench,” advocate Rishav Banerjee said this evening.

Incab has over 2,600 employees and valuable land assets which include a 177-acre plot of land in Jamshedpur, a 40 cottah property in Dalhousie in Calcutta, and a land parcel in Pune.
The company had fallen on hard times in 1999 when it was referred to the erstwhile Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). It was admitted for the corporate insolvency resolution process on August 7, 2019.

Banerjee submitted that Ramesh Gowani was in control of Incab Industries by virtue of being a director. Gowani had declared that he was a director in Incab before the Registrar of Companies by filing a DIR-12.

He also pointed out that by virtue of Gowani’s shareholding in Kamala Mills and his directorship in Fasqua, both Kamala Mills and Fasqua, become related parties of Incab and thus the resolution passed by related parties (as part of CoC) to liquidate Incab became null and void.

Kamala Mills and Fasqua had maintained before NCLAT and the SC that they were related parties.