Aviva Life settles 2-year-old dispute with Apeejay Trust

Citing safety of its policyholders and distributors, Aviva Life has settled the Apeejay Trust case in which the latter was asking Rs 27.67 lakh. The settlement was done through the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal). Before the hearing of Avia-Apeejay dispute case in the NCLT court on 9th December 2019, Aviva paid Rs 30 lakh to the Apeejay Trust to put the long-drawn case to rest, reported Zee Business TV. Apeejay Trust had put application in the NCLT through bankruptcy code citing Rs 28 lakh repayment from Aviva Life. Apeejay was asking for this hefty amount from Aviva Life against the rent charges of Rs 27.67 for its commercial property in Mumbai.

However, Aviva had declined charges citing in its Rs 9,500 crore balance sheet, there is no such debt from Apeejay Trust. They also said that in that balance sheet, the solvency margin is 300 per cent, which is double the allowed company law norms. In response to the Apeejay Trust application in NCLT, Aviva had decided to contest charges labelled by Apeejay Trust and its hearing in NCLT was scheduled on 9th November 2019. However, citing safety of its policyholders and distributors, Aviva Life decided to settle the case with Apeejay outside court in an amicable manner by paying Rs 30 lakh to the Apeejay Trust.

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The seeds of the commercial dispute between Aviva and Apeejay group were sown two years ago when the former stopped making payments towards license fees for Apeejay House, a property that belongs to Apeejay Trust, as per the court filings. Though the NCLT noted that IBC exempts financial services providers from insolvency proceedings, it rejected Aviva’s attempt to seek an exemption on these grounds.