- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) This appeal has been preferred from an interim order passed by the High Court at Patna staying the operation of the order of Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction dated 17.02.2003.
(3.) The case has a chequered history with the Company being declared as a sick industrial undertaking in 1996. Schemes had been propounded from time to time which had not been worked out for various reasons, which are unnecessary to be considered. The secured creditors of the Company include the appellants, namely, International Financial Corporation, Washington and ICICI Company Limited, IFCI, IDBI, LIC, GIC and other nationalised banks. The proceedings before BIFR were stalled to a certain extent when a writ petition was filed in 1998 by the workers of the respondent Company. That writ petition ultimately came to be disposed of by an order dated 9.02.2001 when this Court directed BIFR to consider the draft scheme which was then before it and, if it thought proper to approve it without modification after hearing all the parties. However, it was also made clear that it was open to BIFR, if it thought fit, to call for a fresh scheme. As 7 years had already passed since the Company was declared a sick undertaking BIFR was directed to deal with the matter as expeditiously as possible.;