ORDER

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 17-2-2003.

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 nationalsed banks. The proceedings before BIFR were stalled to a certain extent when a writ petition was f1led in 1998 by the workers of the respondent Company. That writ petition ultimately came to be disposed of by an order dated 9-2-2001when 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.

4. BIFR unfortunately has not been able to conclude the proceedings till today although more than three years have elapsed since we had directed it to do so. The reason for the delay lies not so much in the consideration of the Scheme and the various steps taken to work out a viable method of securing the interest of the creditors, the business and the workmen but primarily because of writ petitions which were filed from time to time in which orders were passed staying proceedings before BIFR; after the first writ petition of the workers was disposed of as noted earlier, a second writ petition was filed by the State of Jharkhand. An interim order was passed on 17-7-2002 staying the BIFR proceedings. The order dated 17-7-2002 was modified on 31-7-2002 by allowing proceedings before BIFR to go on but it was directed that if BIFR passed any order which might result in any change in the management of the respondent Company, the order would not be implemented or given effect to without the leave of the Court. Why the State Government was interested in seeing that the management of the Company continued is not clear.

5. In the meanwhile, IFCI which had been appointed as the operating agency by BIFR had prepared a scheme under which the secured creditors collectively agreed to write off their dues to the extent that the total liability of the Company to the secured creditors would be about Rs 135 crores only (instead of almost double the amount), of which Rs 65 crores were to be paid immediately and the balance was to be paid in instalments over a period of time. The creditors would be entitled to a pro rata amount out of the sale proceeds according to the Scheme.

6. BIFR, by an elaborately reasoned order dated 17-2-2003, approved the Scheme with certain modifications. The modifications in fact pertained to the participation of the Government of Jharkhand in the revival of the Company by investing an amount of Rs 50 crores in the Company. In the event the Government of Jharkhand did not agree to extend its support and the private promoters did not put forward an agreed rehabilitation proposal, IFCI as the operating agency was directed to issue advertisements in leading newspapers within two weeks from the date of the order inviting offers for the takeover leasing/amalgamation/merger for rehabilitation, with or without the OTS settlement as offered by the financial institutions and the banks of the Company. Six weeks time was to be given for submission of the offers. The present promoters of the Company were also given the liberty to submit a fully tied-up and comprehensive rehabilitation proposal in response to the advertisement, indicating clear