NCLT starts insolvency process against Orchid Pharma founder K Raghavendra Rao

The Chennai Bench-II of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has started insolvency resolution proceedings against K Raghavendra Rao, founder and former managing director of Orchid Pharma, in his capacity as a personal guarantor for the drugmaker’s loans. That is nearly seven years after the company he built passed to new owners through bankruptcy.

The tribunal passed the order on October 16, 2026, and uploaded it to the NCLT website on October 27. It also started a separate process against Vijayalakshmi R, another personal guarantor of Orchid Pharma, by an order of the same date. According to public notices published under Section 102 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), both of them list the same address in Besant Nagar, Chennai.

The two cases are separate. Rao’s is CP(IB)/188/2022, decided on IA(IBC)/1444/(CHE)/2024. Vijayalakshmi’s is CP(IB)/186/2022, decided on IA(IBC)/1406/(CHE)/2024. Going by the 2022 case numbers, the petitions took about four years to be admitted.

Tirumavalavan C K (IBBI/IPA-001/IP-P-02067/2020-2021/13400) has been appointed resolution professional in both cases. Creditors have until December 4, 2026, to submit their claims with proof in Form B.

The notices do not say who filed the petitions or how much is claimed under the guarantees.

Once the process is admitted, a moratorium applies to all of the guarantor’s debts. The debtor then prepares a repayment plan with the resolution professional, and creditors vote on it. If no plan is approved, creditors can move for bankruptcy.

Rao was once among the best-known first-generation entrepreneurs in Indian pharma. He founded Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals on 1 July 1992, and in 2011 he received the Padma Shri.

The company went into insolvency in 2017. NCLT accepted a petition by one of its lenders, Lakshmi Vilas Bank. The first resolution attempt failed: the NCLT annulled the plan by Ingen Capital. In the second round, NCLT approved Dhanuka’s resolution plan on June 25, 2019. The NCLAT later set that approval aside, and the Supreme Court then reversed the NCLAT. Dhanuka Laboratories formally took control of the company on 31 March 2020.

The resolution was expected to fetch secured lenders around 32.3 per cent recovery. Lenders have since pursued promoters’ personal guarantees to recover the rest. The Supreme Court cleared that route in Lalit Kumar Jain (2021) and upheld the personal guarantor provisions in Dilip B Jiwrajka (2023).

Under Dhanuka, Orchid has since become the only pharma company in India to have discovered a new drug (NCE), Enmetazobactam, which is now approved in the United States, Europe and India.

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