The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2026 (Act No. 6 of 2026), which received Presidential assent on 6 April 2026, is widely regarded as the most sweeping overhaul of India’s insolvency regime since the Code’s original enactment in 2016. Running to over sixty amending sections, it introduces three brand-new structural frameworks in one fell swoop: a Creditor-Initiated Insolvency Resolution Process (CIIRP) built on a debtor-in-possession model; a Group Insolvency Framework enabling coordinated resolution of interconnected companies within the same corporate umbrella; and an enabling framework for Cross-Border Insolvency modelled on UNCITRAL principles, addressing a long-standing gap that insolvency professionals had previously plugged with ad-hoc protocols. Most of the Act’s seventy-two sections were brought into force with effect from 26 May 2026, pursuant to a Ministry notification dated 22 May 2026, though the CIIRP mechanism itself still needs further notifications before it can be put to actual use.
Under CIIRP, eligible financial creditors holding at least fifty-one per cent in value of the debt due may set the wheels of insolvency resolution in motion out of court, without prior tribunal intervention at the preliminary stage, while the existing board continues to run the company day-to-day, subject to the watchful eye of a resolution professional. On 15 April 2026, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India released a detailed Discussion Paper proposing the draft IBBI (Creditor-Initiated Insolvency Resolution Process) Regulations, 2026, complete with a model timeline running from public announcement through to approval of the resolution plan in as little as one hundred and fifty days, together with eleven standardised forms (C-1 to C-11) covering every stage from initiation to withdrawal. Public comments, originally invited till 28 April 2026, were later extended to 5 May 2026. As things stand in August 2026, the CIIRP framework continues to wait in the wings: Sections 58Order LinkA and 58B require the Central Government to first notify, by separate notification, the classes of corporate debtors eligible for the process and the specific financial institutions authorised to initiate it, and only once that groundwork is laid can the final regulations follow it into the Official Gazette.