Supreme Court dismisses appeal by art director Nitin Desai's widow against NCLAT order

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal of Naina Desai, widow of late Bollywood art director Nitin Desai, against an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that had rejected his appeal against NCLT order initiating insolvency proceedings against his company.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti in its September 11 order said, 'We do not find any good ground and reason to interfere with the impugned judgement and hence, the appeal is dismissed.' On August 1, the NCLAT had dismissed an appeal by Nitin Desai against the June 25 NCLT order by which corporate insolvency proceedings were initiated against his company and an Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) was appointed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Desai, a renowned art director, who created sets for blockbuster films such as Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Lagaan, was found hanging at his studio in Maharashtra's Raigad district neighbouring Mumbai on August 2.

The Mumbai's bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had appointed Jitendra Kothari as IRP and initiated a corporate insolvency resolution process against Desai's firm ND's Art World Pvt Ltd.

Desai's company had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan repayment to creditors. It had borrowed Rs 185 crore through two loans from ECL Finance in 2016 and 2018, and troubles with repayments started from January 2020. ECL Finance is non-banking finance arm of the Edelweiss Group.

The outstanding dues went up to Rs 252 crore including accrued interest by June 2022.