Bankruptcy code bill referred to joint panel

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015, which proposes a single bankruptcy code with deadlines for processing insolvency cases, was on Wednesday referred to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament.

Moving the motion in this regard in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the select committee will have 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.

"The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill, 2015 be referred to a joint committee of the houses," Jaitley said.

He said the committee would give its report on the last day of the first week of the budget session next year.

The decision to refer the Bill to a select committee of parliament came a day after several members in the lower house did not favour the government's plan to directly take up the Bill for discussion and passage without referring it to the Standing Committee of Finance.

The 20 members of the select committee from the Lok Sabha are P.P. Chaudhary, Gopal Shetty, Subhash Chandra Baheria, Nishikant Dubey, Shivkumar Chanabasappa Udasi, Anil Gulabrao Shirole, Abhishek Singh, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Sanjay Jaiswal and Jagdambika Pal (all BJP) Chandrakant Bhaurao Khaire (Shiv Sena), Jayadev Galla (Telugu Desam Party), Chirag Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party), K.C. Venugopal, Sushmita Dev (Congress), P. Venugopal (AIADMK), Kalyan Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Bhartruhari Mahtab (Biju Janata Dal), B. Vinod Kumar (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) and Jitendra Chaudhury (Communist Party of India - Marxist).

The bankruptcy bill provides, among others, for creation of an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Fund and an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India to regulate insolvency professional, agencies and information utilities.

The proposed law aims to reduce delays in resolution of insolvency cases and improve recoveries of amount lent to companies. The draft bill has proposed a timeline of 180 days, extendable by another 90 days, to resolve cases of bankruptcy.