CabineT reShuffle iS liKely afTer PreSidenT eleCTion
Some heavyweight ministries like defence, external affairs and health may witness changes.
ing in the Cabinet. The PM will have to choose from the existing Cabinet colleagues (regarding who will head the Ministry of Defence). As of now, there are no plans to bring Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to Delhi to head the Ministry of Defence, as some media reports have suggested, as moving him now will give a very negative message considering the fact that MP goes to polls next year,” a senior party functionary said.
The Rajya Sabha (RS) tenure of Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, who was sent to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, is also coming to an end in August 2017 and party sources said that the possibility of she being repeated again was not too bright.
The untimely death of former Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave, who was an RS member from MP, has also created a vacancy in the Cabinet and the Prime Minister is of the view that the crucial ministry should have a full-time minister. Right now, it is being taken care of by Prakash Javadekar, who is also handling the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
With the appointment of Manohar Parrikar, who is an RS MP from Uttar Pradesh, as the Chief Minister of Goa, there is a very strong possibility that a senior Bihar-based BJP leader who has been attacking RJD president Lalu Yadav and his family members over alleged corruption, is likely to be sent to the RS from UP in place of Parrikar after being inducted into the Cabinet. Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda is likely to be asked to move to Himachal Pradesh and prepare for the Assembly elections that are due at the end of this year, as the party has decided to move beyond former Chief Ministers Prem Kumar Dhumal and Shanta Kumar in the hill state.
National vice president Prabhat Jha, who is an RS member from Madhya Pradesh, is also likely to be given a role in the Cabinet. Jha, whose name was dropped at the last moment from the first Cabinet list when the Modi government had won in May 2014—after an influential state leader had pushed for dropping him, giving Narendra Singh Tomar a space in the Cabinet—is likely to be rewarded for the role that he has played in strengthening the organisation in the state.
Similarly, the Ministry of External Affairs is also likely to witness a change of guard, with party sources hinting about the change at the very top. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who has not been keeping well, is likely to be given a position that will give her more time to focus on her health. Swaraj’s name was propped up by a certain section of the media as a possible BJP Presidential nominee, something which, according to senior party leaders, was never discussed in party circles.
“Vacancies will come up in ministries like defence, external affairs and health, apart from some other ministries because of unavoidable reasons. The homework regarding who will fill these vacancies is almost done,” a senior party leader said. Within a year of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) starting operations from June 2016, a total of 81 companies which had taken loans to the tune of Rs 14,260 crore have pleaded with the body seeking permission to be declared bankrupt under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.
According to the NCLT, 81 cases have been registered in all till 20 May this year under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, out which 32 defaulting companies wilfully approached the NCLT. The rest of the companies were asked by the NCLT to present their case for not being able to repay the debt.
As per the insolvency code, the NCLT will constitute a debt repayment committee for assessment of the loan and repayment capacity of these companies. In case they are not capable of repaying the loan, these companies will be declared bankrupt, a senior NCLT official said.
“For failing to repay bank loan, the NCLT has already suspended the operations of 11 companies owing almost Rs 3,900 crore in debt. The NCLT has asked these companies to repay the loan amount as they don’t satisfy the criterion for declaring them bankrupt,” the senior official quoted above said.
There are 25,000 pending cases in the Company Law Board (CLB), the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), and the various Debts Recovery Tribunals (DRTs). All these cases are expected to be transferred to the NCLT. The CLB, BIFR and the DRTs will eventually merge with the NCLT.
However, experts say that the NCLT may not be able to clear the huge burden of pending cases with the limited resources it has. “With just 11 benches and 62 judicial and technical members, the NCLT will not be able to handle the mountain of pending cases,” Devesh Sachdev, CEO of Fusion Microfinance, a consultancy firm, said. “The NCLT, set up under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, may take at least five years to fully clear the 25,000 pending cases,” Sachdev added. However, the NCLT has already said that it will open more branches to deal with pending cases within the time limit. As per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, the NCLT has to decide on the cases within 180 days of a case being filed, with a provision to extend the deadline by 90 days. The Code was passed in May 2016 and subsequently, a four-member Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India was constituted under M.S. Sahoo, former whole-time member at capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.