Buyers can now initiate real estate bankruptcy in India
India's National Company Law Appellate Tribunal has ruled that, in certain situations, buyers of real estate are recognised as financial creditors and can begin bankruptcy proceedings against developers. The judgement overturned previous decisions by the the National Company Law Tribunal, and could open the floodgates to thousands of eligible creditors. "If such creditors can collectively account for even 25% of claims, they could potentially interfere with the functioning of the committee of creditors", said Souvik Ganguly of Acuity Law.

NEW DELHI: You can now initiate bankruptcy proceedings against the developer in certain cases if you don’t get your commercial property or service apartment on time.A recent judgment against AMR Infrastructure has upheld that buyers are entitled to be recognised as financial creditors , wherein the developer had promised ‘assured returns’ as a part of the deal.However, the matter has raised questions about initiating bankruptcy proceedings, given that financial creditors have a say in negotiating the debt recast. In the case of real estate projects, there could be thousands of eligible financial creditors.Most experts are of the opinion that it will be difficult to hold a committee of creditors as required under the bankruptcy law if even 1% of these buyers attend any meeting. Souvik Ganguly of Acuity Law said, “If such creditors can collectively account for even 25% of claims, they could potentially interfere with the functioning of the committee of creditors. That has implications for the extent of influence lenders can exercise.”An email sent to AMR Infrastructure did not elicit a response till press time. The judgement in case of AMR was passed by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which set aside previous verdicts of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Delhi and upheld considering realty buyers as financial creditors.The NCLAT said, “The claim should be considered by the interim resolution professional (IRP) and the committee of creditors, in accordance with provisions of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016.”