This marked a phenomenal 140 per cent rise in the number of cases filed as compared to the previous year. Of these, 233 were registered by the board, while 119 were turned down. Those registered include four central and three state public sector undertakings.

Interestingly, about 230 new registrations have already been filed so far up to August 20, 1998. Thus, registrations in 1998 are likely to create a new record in the entire decade leading to almost a case being filed a day, barring Sundays.

BIFR had registered 531 cases in its first year of inception in 1997 and 349 in 1988. The total number of cases pending with the Board has piled up to 596 even as it is left with just one full bench functioning and no new appointments being made.

While 188 cases were disposed off by the Board in 1997, 32 had been disposed in the first three months up to March 31, 1998.

About 600 companies have been recommended to be wound up by the Board since its inception in May 1987 which works out to over 40 per cent of the total cases disposed off so far. It has sanctioned rehabilitation schemes for 602 companies, while in 26 cases, schemes were sanctioned by the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (AAIFR).

Interestingly, Sections 17 and 18 of the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act 1985 recognise BIFR as the only competent authority to sanction schemes, while AAIFR is supposed to act as a appeal court against BIFR decisions. The revised BIFR Bill of Gujral government which lapsed last year had sought to dispense with AAIFR altogether.

Out of a total of 2286 references registered by the board under SICA so far, about 2000 were private companies and 150 central and state PSUs. The total number of references received since BIFR's inception is 3148.