IL&FS Asks NCLT to Recover ₹185.88 Crore in Excess Pay From 23 Former Directors

IL&FS has approached the National Company Law Tribunal's Mumbai Bench to recover ₹185.88 crore in excess managerial remuneration from 23 former directors and two subsidiaries, after recast accounts for five financial years turned reported profits into losses. BusinessLine reported the application on November 1, 2026.

IL&FS's Case Before the Mumbai NCLT

IL&FS is an Indian infrastructure financier founded in 1995 and headquartered in Mumbai, now operating under NCLT resolution with an NCLAT-approved framework. The application covers remuneration paid for 2013-14 through 2017-18 and names IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) and IL&FS Transportation Networks as subsidiaries whose former directors are also respondents.

IL&FS said it paid directors on the basis of profits in the original accounts, while the recast accounts showed a cumulative loss of ₹9,415.24 crore from FY14 to FY18 against a reported profit of ₹1,865.73 crore. IFIN's recast loss was ₹5,655.22 crore against a profit of ₹1,015.67 crore, and ITNL's was ₹1,628.44 crore against a profit of ₹1,246.33 crore. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs directed the recovery, and notices went to all 23 former directors, who raised objections.

Of the ₹187.02 crore refundable in total, only ₹91.09 lakh, net of ₹22.78 lakh paid as income tax, has been refunded, which the application describes as less than 0.5 per cent. Three former non-executive directors, two of IL&FS and one of ITNL, have refunded money. The respondents include R C Bhargava, Jaithirth Rao, Michael Pinto, S B Mathur and Rina Kamath of IL&FS; Subhalakshmi Panse, Surinder Singh Kohli and Neera Saggi of IFIN; and Deepak Dasgupta and Pradeep Puri of ITNL, along with former executive directors Hari Sankaran, Arun Kumar Saha, Ramesh Bawa and K Ramchand. For former chairman Ravi Parthasarathy, who has died, the claim is against his legal heir. IL&FS is pursuing managing directors, whole-time directors, managers and CEOs under Section 199 of the Companies Act, and cites Section 197(9) as obliging any director, including non-executive and independent directors, to refund sums drawn beyond prescribed limits. The former directors argued that recast financials cannot retrospectively invalidate pay approved under audited original accounts, that the recast accounts are not audited statements and that the notices are vague because amounts differed between the first and later notices. IL&FS called the responses "baseless, unwarranted, and without any semblance of merit" and said the discrepancy was a calculation variation that has since been corrected. Business Standard also reported the filing and the ₹91.09 lakh refunded so far.

What the Company Records Show

According to akta.pro company records, the NCLT suspended the existing IFIN board in October 2018 and replaced it with a government-nominated board after the parent's default cascade, and initiated a corporate insolvency resolution process for IFIN that month. In March 2020, the NCLAT approved the Resolution Framework for IL&FS group entities, including IFIN, formalizing a court-supervised asset-monetization and creditor-recovery process.

Earlier Steps in the IL&FS Clean-Up

In October 2026, the corporate affairs ministry appointed retired IAS officer Nagaraju Maddirala as chairman and managing director of IL&FS for two years, succeeding Nand Kishore, at a monthly salary of ₹5.5 lakh plus a company car and accommodation, CNBC TV18 reported. In July 2026, CNBC TV18 reported that IL&FS had recovered over ₹57,500 crore, about 94% of its targeted recovery amount, repaid more than ₹50,000 crore to creditors and completed the cleanup of over 200 group companies.

What Comes Next for the Recovery Case

IL&FS has asked the NCLT for an interim direction requiring the identified former directors to deposit the excess remuneration in a separate interest-bearing fixed deposit account while the hearing is pending. The company said its new board has executed steps to resolve about ₹50,387 crore of group debt as on June 30, 2026, against an overall debt resolution target of ₹61,000 crore.