The upper house of Parliament (the Rajya Sabha) passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 on May 11 2016. The code was previously passed by the lower house of Parliament (the Lok Sabha) on May 5 2016.1 The code is expected to be approved by the president shortly, and with it the much-awaited overhaul of India's cumbersome laws for insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings will officially be in place (for further details please see "Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2015: well worth the wait").
After the introduction of the code in the Lok Sabha on December 21 2015, it was referred to the 16th Lok Sabha Joint Committee on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2015, which presented its report2 to both houses of Parliament on April 28 2016.
The passage of the code is expected to improve India's ranking in the World Bank's index for ease of doing business, where India is presently ranked at 130 out of 189. On the World Bank's index for resolving insolvency, India is presently ranked at 136 out of 189.
The code will serve as a landmark to improve the ease of doing business in India, and the government is expected to notify provisions of the code in a staged manner, to ensure a seamless transition from the existing regime.
Footnotes
(1) Available at http://164.100.47.4/BillsTexts/LSBillTexts/PassedLoksabha/349_2015_LS_Eng.pdf.
(2) Please see "Reports Presented".
This article was first published in the May 2016 issue of the International Law Office's Insolvency & Restructuring – India Newsletter
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