CORPORATE INSOLVENCY AND RESTRUCTURING: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES POST IBC 2016
AUTHOR – RISHABH ATUL LALITA SHARMA, STUDENT AT KARNAVATI UNIVERSITY
BEST CITATION – RISHABH ATUL LALITA SHARMA, CORPORATE INSOLVENCY AND RESTRUCTURING: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES POST IBC 2016, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (5) OF 2025, PG. 53-65, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
This research analyzes the development of Indian corporate insolvency and restructuring law with an emphasis on the role of transformation played by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). Before the IBC, Indian insolvency law was regulated by a series of piecemeal legislations including the Companies Act, 1956 & 2013, Sick Industrial Companies Act, 1985 (SICA), RDDBFI Act, 1993, and SARFAESI Act, 2002. These overlapping pieces of legislation resulted in jurisdictional disputes, delayed insolvency resolution timelines, low recovery rates for creditors, and a debtor-centric system that resulted in piling up of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking system.The IBC Act made a paradigm shift by bringing harmonization of insolvency law into a single, creditor-oriented, and time-bound resolution mechanism. Some of the key elements of the IBC are the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) as the adjudicating authority, the Insolvency Professionals (IPs) concept, and the introduction of a hierarchical debt repayment system under Section 53. The Code also takes international best practices in insolvency, such as the US Chapter 11 model, UK’s Enterprise Act, and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. By reducing procedural complexities and increasing legal certainty, the IBC has significantly enhanced the speed of insolvency resolution in India. The study concludes that the IBC has filled gaps in the earlier regime, thereby facilitating ease of doing business and foreign investment. Challenges such as delay in taking effect and development of a robust cross-border insolvency regime are still on the agenda of future development and reform