By Arpan Chaturvedi
(Reuters) -India’s top court said on Thursday it would reconsider its order that quashed Indian steelmaker JSW Steel’s $2.3 billion takeover of Bhushan Power and Steel, saying the order did not correctly consider past precedents.
In May, the Supreme Court rejected JSW Steel’s deal for Bhushan Power and Steel six years after it was first approved, unsettling buyers of other distressed assets and casting a shadow over Indian bankruptcy reforms introduced in 2016.
JSW Steel subsequently asked the top court to review its ruling.
On Thursday, judges heard the review plea and said the verdict quashing the deal did not correctly consider the legal position established by past precedents.
“We therefore find this a fit case wherein the judgment under review needs to be recalled and the matter needs to be considered afresh,” the top court added.
In May, while quashing the deal, the Supreme Court had said there was an “entire spectrum of lacunas and flaws” in the takeover process and decided to scrap one of the most successful insolvency deals in India’s history.
The top court ordered the liquidation of Bhushan Power and asked banks to return funds which they had recovered during JSW’s takeover.
However, weeks later it paused the liquidation proceedings, allowing time for JSW Steel to seek a review of the verdict.
The Supreme Court will hear the case next on August 7.
(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi in New Delhi. Writing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan. Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mark Potter)
