NCLT approves Rs 352-cr resolution plan for Radius & Deserve Land Developers

The National Company Law Tribunal’s Mumbai bench has approved a Rs 352.5 crore resolution plan submitted by Bharadvaja Buildcon LLP for Radius & Deserve Land Developers Private Limited, closing out a 38-month insolvency process during which the sole financial creditor, IDBI Trusteeship Services Limited, will recover just 10.75% of its admitted claim.

A two-member bench of Lakshmi Gurung (Member, Judicial) and Hariharan Neelakanta Iyer (Member, Technical) passed the order on July 21, allowing the plan approval application filed by resolution professional Aegis Resolution Services Private Limited under Section 30(6) and Section 31 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

IDBI Trusteeship Services, the sole member of the committee of creditors with a 100% voting share, had an admitted claim of Rs 3,255.82 crore. Under the approved plan, it will receive no cash consideration. Instead, Bharadvaja Buildcon has offered to allot up to 100,000 sq ft of constructed area in the free-sale component of the company’s Slum Rehabilitation Authority project at Teenmurti, Magathane, valued notionally at Rs 35,000 per sq ft — placing the total consideration at Rs 350 crore. The total resolution plan value, including Rs 2.5 crore towards insolvency resolution process costs, works out to Rs 352.5 crore.

Delivery timeline stretched to four years

The tribunal had repeatedly sought clarity on the plan’s implementation timeline before approving it. In an order dated June 23, the bench noted that the “Transfer Date” — the point at which Bharadvaja Buildcon assumes control of the company — was not fixed, and asked for specifics on the “Feasibility and Viability Events” governing the plan.

In response, the resolution applicant clarified in an affidavit dated June 27 that the Transfer Date would fall within 60 days of the tribunal’s approval. Construction of the free-sale building is to begin within 25 months of approval, with the constructed area handed over to the financial creditor within 24 months of that. The upper limit for delivering the creditor’s entitlement is therefore 49 months from the approval date, independent of the Transfer Date.

At a hearing on July 14, counsel for IDBI Trusteeship told the bench there was “nothing in the company” apart from the rehabilitation project, and that the creditor was satisfied the proposed timeline was feasible and viable.

Valuation queries held up approval for a year

The plan approval process, first heard on merits in July 2025, was delayed for nearly 12 months over queries about the valuation of the corporate debtor’s assets. In an order dated July 31, 2025, the bench flagged that assets including “Other Non-Current Assets” worth Rs 246.92 crore, inventory worth Rs 310.95 crore, and short-term loans and advances of Rs 15.18 crore had all been assigned nil fair and liquidation value.

The resolution professional subsequently explained that a large share of the non-current assets — Rs 240.85 crore — represented a deposit paid to group company Radius & Deserve Builders LLP towards floor space index rights, refund of which is the subject of a pending application before another bench of the NCLT; an appeal against its rejection is now before the NCLAT. Other components trace to related-party transactions under litigation, including three avoidance applications filed by the resolution professional under Sections 66 of the Code in August 2024.

The resolution plan provides that any future recoveries from these disputed assets or from avoidance proceedings will accrue solely to the financial creditor. The applicant cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kalyani Transco v. Bhushan Power and Steel to argue that this open-ended recovery clause does not render the plan conditional, since it neither permits modification nor withdrawal of the plan.

Prolonged resolution process

The corporate insolvency resolution process against Radius & Deserve Land Developers began on May 3, 2023, following admission of a Section 7 petition. The process saw five separate rounds of Form G invitations for expressions of interest between July 2023 and February 2025, after earlier resolution plans from Deserve Builders LLP were twice rejected by the committee of creditors as commercially unsatisfactory.

Bharadvaja Buildcon LLP, formed in 2024, is held equally by Aspect Infrastructure & Construction Private Limited and Karmas Buildcon LLP. The committee of creditors approved its plan on April 7, 2025, and the plan approval application was filed on April 11, 2025, within an extended CIRP timeline.

The tribunal held that the plan met the mandatory requirements under Section 30(2) of the Code and Regulation 38 of the CIRP Regulations, and invoked the Supreme Court’s rulings in K. Sashidhar v. Indian Overseas Bank and Ghanshyam Mishra and Sons v. Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company to hold that the commercial wisdom of the committee of creditors was not open to judicial review, and that all claims not part of the approved plan stand extinguished.

Advocate Nausher Kholi, with Karan Sangani and Harshit Tyagi of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, appeared for the resolution professional. Advocate Rohit Gupta appeared for IDBI Trusteeship Services.

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