NOIDA: More than 300 employees of Supertech Limited — currently under insolvency proceedings — staged protests on Tuesday along with hundreds of vendors, demanding that salaries and payments due to them for several months be cleared at the earliest.
Both groups have recently approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), seeking its intervention and an order to interim resolution professional (IRP) Hitesh Goel to clear the dues.
Employees gathered at the company’s Sector 96 office in Noida on Tuesday morning, expressing their frustration over five months of unpaid salaries. The protesters vowed not to resume work until their salaries were cleared.
The 300-odd workers have been without pay since Sept last year, causing them severe financial hardships. Many said they had been struggling with basic expenses such as monthly house rents, loan payments, and school fees. Some of them claimed facing the risk of their children being expelled from schools.
Supertech Ltd is one of many companies floated by Supertech group. The National Company Law Tribunal ordered the initiation of insolvency proceedings against it in March 2022. Following an appeal by Ram Kishor Arora — a former Supertech promoter — the NCLAT in June 2022 allowed the formation of the committee of creditors for Ecovillage 2 while keeping other projects under the supervision of the IRP.
Several vendors of Supertech Ltd — who have formed Shri Shyam Vendors Association to register their protest — began an indefinite sit-in pat Supertech Square, demanding settlement of their dues exceeding Rs 200 crore.
Association president Dinesh Bhati has also called on National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) to release at least 50% of their pending payments before initiating work on Supertech’s stalled housing projects.
The state-backed NBCC, which was mandated by NCLAT in Dec 2024 to complete 16 unfinished projects of Supertech, has yet to respond to the contractors’ demands. The vendors have also filed a petition with NCLAT, which heard their plea last week and requested IRP Goel for a written submission.
Following Supertech’s insolvency proceedings in March 2022, the IRP had assured vendors that dues incurred during corporate insolvency resolution process would be settled “on priority”. This commitment, however, remained unfulfilled.
The association of vendors also argued that while issuing its order asking NBCC to complete the unfinished projects in Dec last year, NCLAT failed to acknowledge the priority of payments due to operational creditors — as mandated by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The payments included expenses for maintaining essential supplies and facilitating the completion of the projects and handovers of flats.
NCLAT has scheduled hearings for the employees’ case on Feb 10 and the vendors’ petition on Feb 11.
