Supreme Court provides interim relief to stressed power assets

The Supreme Court has granted interim relief to stressed power firms, directing lenders to maintain a status quo on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) February 2018 circular for banks to resolve these cases within 180 days. The apex court directed that all pleas filed by the central bank relating to the circular should be transferred to it and it will hear the matter on November 11, 2018. The order will immediately benefit projects aggregating about 13 GW, which are in their final stages of restructuring and insolvency proceedings. The order will also provide time to the high-level empowered committee to submit its report on corrective actions. In a separate development, RBI has refused to be part of the cabinet secretary-led panel set up by the Prime Minister’s Office in July 2018, to resolve issues of the stressed thermal power sector.