The Scheme of Arrangement as a Debt Restructuring Tool in India: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to analyse the scheme of arrangement as a debt restructuring tool in India and the extent to which it has been utilised. It finds that the scheme has been used sparingly for debt restructuring in India, and primarily in large and complex transactions. This is contrary to jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom and Singapore that have witnessed a rise in the use of this mechanism. This trend clearly indicates that the presence of an efficient restructuring mechanism in the legal rules is by itself inadequate to ensure its full utilisation. Apart from law on the statute books, necessary regard must be had to other legal and institutional considerations as well as a complex web of other factors, including historical and business considerations, which ultimately determine the success (or failure) of a mechanism such as the scheme of arrangement in each jurisdiction. In India, the scheme has been overshadowed by other mechanisms (both informal and formal), and that wide-ranging reforms to the law relating to corporate resolution have paid short shrift to the scheme. The paper concludes with some recommendations to rejuvenate the use of schemes in India to exploit its full potential as an effective tool for debt restructuring.

Keywords: Scheme of arrangement, corporate debt restructuring, bankruptcy, insolvency