Mr. Piramal’s DHFL takeover reads like a case study in court orders followed only when profitable and quietly bypassed when inconvenient. The sequence of events is revealing.
On 19 May 2021, the NCLT directed the CoC to reconsider Wadhawans 100% repayment offer. Piramal and the CoC proceeded as if no such order had been passed, an act that many described as a near-contempt of a statutory tribunal. Just six days later, on 25 May 2021, the NCLAT stayed the NCLT order with unprecedented speed, offering corporate relief far more quickly than ordinary litigants typically receive.
On 7 June 2021, the NCLT approved Piramals plan without revisiting its own earlier directive, raising serious questions about the IBCs maximization principle and fairness toward depositors. Then, on 27 January 2022, the NCLAT declared the resolution plan illegal, irregular, and discriminatory. Yet Piramal continued in full control without interruption, marking a second contempt-like disregard of a tribunals authority.
Finally, on 11 April 2022, the Supreme Court stayed the NCLAT ruling almost immediatelyanother instance of judicial speed that contrasts starkly with the long delays faced by thousands of DHFL depositors whose cases were repeatedly dismissed, diverted, or delayed on technicalities.
Taken together, this pattern shows that orders going against Piramal were ignored, defied, or buried in procedure, while orders favoring him were processed with exceptional urgency. Depositors remained trapped in slow, confusing litigation, as the corporate takeover was completed well before judicial finality, reinforcing the sense that some are indeed more equal than others.
The result is a textbook example of selective compliance, privileged access, and two serious episodes resembling contempt of court, leaving ordinary DHFL depositors at the receiving end of a deeply lopsided resolution.