The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has delivered a comprehensive setback to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) by rejecting its appeal seeking to recover ₹179.19 crore in admitted claims from debt-ridden Rolta India Ltd. According to latest reports, a Delhi bench of NCLAT upheld the order of the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which on December 15, 2025, approved the ₹900-crore resolution plan submitted by Ashdan Properties for Rolta India, a multinational technology company. The bench comprising Judicial Member Justice Yogesh Khanna and Technical Members Barun Mitra and Ajai Das Mehrotra ruled that "interfering with an approved resolution plan after it has attained finality would be inappropriate," emphasizing that the sanctity of an approved and implemented resolution plan cannot be disturbed on claims that were not timeously agitated. The tribunal dismissed the appeal with the simple statement "The appeal is dismissed," with the detailed written judgement awaited.
The DoT had originally claimed ₹469 crore towards unpaid licence fees linked to adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues for FY2005-06 and FY2006-07, but the resolution professional admitted claims worth ₹179.19 crore. As reported by multiple sources, the department argued that around ₹179.19 crore of its claim had been admitted, but the resolution plan allocated only ₹10 lakh towards government and statutory dues out of the ₹900-crore total. The DoT argued that this treatment was contrary to the waterfall mechanism under Section 53 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, claiming unfair treatment as it allocated only ₹10 lakh for government and statutory authorities despite total admitted claims of ₹179.19 crore by the DoT and the Income Tax Department. Under the approved plan, the DoT's dues were treated as operational debt, which ranks below financial creditors in the payment waterfall prescribed under the IBC, resulting in government authorities recovering just 0.06% of their admitted claims. The government described this allocation as "an illusory recovery of only 0.06% of dues from the debt-ridden company," calling the approval a "grave miscarriage of justice" and "legally untenable."
The tribunal observed that Rolta's resolution plan had already been implemented, with the NCLT closing the company petition on February 2, 2026. According to the latest reports, Rolta entered insolvency with admitted liabilities of over ₹14,074 crore, while total claims filed by creditors exceeded ₹22,546 crore. The approved resolution plan translates to an overall recovery of about 6.39% of admitted claims. The tribunal had admitted Union Bank of India's plea to start insolvency proceedings against Rolta India in 2023 for unpaid dues of ₹14,074 crore. The company's other creditors included Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, and Central Bank of India. The bench noted that the resolution professional had informed the DoT on September 25, 2023 that its claim had been categorised as contingent, but the department did not challenge that decision before the adjudicating authority. Instead, it continued pursuing relief before TDSAT in an attempt to get the interim stay vacated. The bench referred to the Supreme Court's ruling in Committee of Creditors of Essar Steel India Ltd. v. Satish Kumar Gupta, reiterating that a successful resolution applicant cannot be saddled with fresh claims after a resolution plan has been approved.
The approved resolution plan allocated ₹808.55 crore to secured financial creditors and ₹64.2 crore to unsecured financial creditors from the ₹900-crore total. As reported by multiple sources, secured financial creditors will recover 11.41% of their admitted claims, while unsecured financial creditors will recover 0.96% from the resolution amount. The dispute centred on how the government's claims were treated under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The resolution professional had classified DoT's claim as "not acceptable but contingent" citing an interim stay granted by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), which stayed the recovery of dues in August 2018. The DoT had granted ISP licenses to Rolta in 1998 and 2002, with the company required to pay licence fees based on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). After Rolta defaulted, the DoT issued demand notices, which the company challenged before TDSAT. Rolta India was a leading service provider of innovative information technology solutions for many vertical segments, including government, defence, utilities, process, power, financial services, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.
