KOCHI: The National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) Kochi bench has appointed an Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) to take charge of PVS Memorial Hospital, which was shut down in August.
Sources said the NCLT has also given the hospital 180 days to pay off the money it owes to employees and various creditors which include four banks and a chit financing company.
The closing down of the hospital has left a large number of employees in the lurch and led to default of loans to the tune of over `200 crore taken from various financial institutions. The creditors include Axis Bank, South Indian Bank, LIC Housing Finance, ICICI Bank and chit financing company Kuriland Pvt Ltd. The hospital also owes money to employees and utilities such as Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) and Kerala Water Authority, sources said.
“The creditors can submit their claims to IRP Bijoy Prabhakaran Pulipra, who will verify the claims, compile them and submit them to the NCLT. More than 500 claims have been submitted till now by various creditors,” said a source.
The hospital is put in resolution process by the NCLT under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The resolution period started on October 16 and will end on April 13. The first 30 days will be allotted to collect the claims which will then be verified. The claims that are approved will be forwarded to the NCLT.
However, claims can be collected till January 20, after which the Committee of Creditors will be formed and the prospectus published. Then, invitation for interested investors to take over the hospital and its debt will be published.
If the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) fails in reviving the company, the liquidation process will be initiated, following which the hospital and its property will be auctioned and the money distributed among those who have submitted their claims.
Employees bitter
Employees of the hospital, who have been protesting for the past 196 days, alleged its authorities had been planning the shutdown for a long time.
“They did it systematically by fooling us, the banks and everyone engaged in business with the hospital. They shut down the hospital without previous notice and without giving us salaries,” alleged Aseez, who had been working at the hospital’s international desk for the past three years. Jerry Fernandez, who had been a security personnel in the hospital for four years, said, “Several companies approached the authorities last year to buy the hospital, but they did not sell it. When crisis struck, they committed this inhumane act which is now causing problem for all of us.”