STRIVE LEXClarity. Precision. Resolution.\n \n \n What actually happens, and in what order, once a Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process begins — and why the timeline matters for creditors and companies alike.
The Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, or CIRP, is the statutory mechanism under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 for resolving a corporate debtor's insolvency — either through a resolution plan that keeps the company running under new terms, or, if that fails, through liquidation. For companies, creditors, and resolution applicants alike, understanding roughly how the timeline is structured makes a real difference in how realistically each stage is approached.
Once an application under Section 7, 9, or 10 is admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), an Interim Resolution Professional is appointed and a moratorium takes effect under Section 14. The moratorium suspends new legal proceedings against the corporate debtor and freezes asset transfers, giving the process room to proceed without the debtor's estate being eroded during resolution.
Within three days of appointment, the Interim Resolution Professional must make a public announcement inviting claims from creditors. This is a critical window for creditors — claims not submitted within the process can be far harder to recover later, so prompt filing matters.
Within roughly 30 days, a Committee of Creditors (CoC) is constituted, generally composed of financial creditors, and a Resolution Professional is confirmed to run the process going forward. The CoC holds the key commercial decisions in the process, including ultimately approving or rejecting resolution plans.
The CIRP is designed to conclude within 180 days of admission. In practice, this window can be extended by up to 90 additional days by the NCLT on application, and the Supreme Court has clarified that the outer limit of 330 days (including any litigation time) is to be treated as a general rule rather than an absolute bar in every circumstance, though it remains the benchmark the process is measured against.
If a resolution plan is approved by the requisite majority of the CoC and subsequently by the NCLT, the company continues under the approved plan. If no viable plan is approved within the process, the company moves into liquidation under Chapter III of the Code, with assets distributed according to the statutory waterfall under Section 53.
The timeline above is the framework the process is designed to run within — actual cases vary considerably based on litigation, the complexity of the debtor's affairs, and the number of resolution applicants involved. If you are a creditor, a promoter, or a potential resolution applicant trying to understand where a specific matter stands, we built an interactive timeline tool that maps each of these stages in more detail.