The Calcutta bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday ordered dissolution of ailing Incab Industries Limited under The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

The order was passed under Section 33 of the code by the bench comprising two judges, M.B. Gosavi and V.K. Gupta.

The marathon hearing on Incab with regard to dissolution of the committee of creditors(CoC), land lease issue of Tata Steel and debts concluded on January 24 this year at the NCLT, which had then reserved its order.

The liquidation order came as a major blow to the workers in Jamshedpur as well as the union operating here and in Calcutta, where Incab has its head office.

“We are not happy with the NCLT verdict and will soon move National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) challenging the NCLT order, for justice,” said Akash Sharma, the advocate for the Jamshedpur workers.

Akhilesh Shrivastava, the counsel representing the retired workers, said: “We had proposed a resolution plan in our application to the quasi-judicial body (NCLT). But the prayer has been denied and liquidation order has been passed.”

Aloke Sen, assistant secretary of the Incab Employees Association, admitted the order was a major blow.

“It was a grave prejudice towards the workers who have been waiting for 20 long years hoping for a favourable court order,” Sen said over phone from Calcutta. “We fear that the workers would be deprived of any benefit as their claims were not considered in the recent meetings of the committee of creditors. The CoC meeting only entertained claims to the tune of around Rs 1,500 crore made by Kamala Mills, a unit of RR Kabel, one of the previous bidders.”

He said ideally the claims of Kamala Mills would be around Rs 50 crore.

Sen too said the order would be challenged at the NCLAT.

“Tata Steel failed to take over the company despite the fact that the BIFR had already declared it as the suitable promoter. Delhi High Court and even the Supreme Court gave their decisions in favour of Tata Steel in the past, then why did the steel major adopt dilly-dallying tactics in reviving the ailing unit?” Sen asked.

The Delhi High Court in 2013 had asked Tata Steel to provide its management and also prepare the company’s accounts but it did not happen, Sen pointed out.

Former state minister Saryu Roy had also conducted a couple of meetings at the Incab township hearing the grievances of the employees. He had assured the employees and union functionaries of taking up Incab's cause with the state government.

After the NCLT verdict, repeated attempts to contact Roy over phone for comments proved futile. He did not answer calls to his cellphone.

A rough estimate suggests that the assets of Incab Industries Limited would be to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore.

Once considered a blue chip company, Incab's Jamshedpur plant had a strength of around 2,000 employees. In the mid-1990s, Malaysian promoter Leader Universal Berhad Cables took over the firm. But the company started suffering losses and slid deeper in the red. The current strength of employees is around 900 at the Jamshedpur plant. Incab also has a plant in Pune which is defunct.

As it was suffering losses Incab was referred to the BIFR in 1999, a year before Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar.

The BIFR and also the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR), which had already given verdicts in favour of Tata Steel in the past, were dissolved on December 1, 2016, paving the way for the NCLT.