TEN YEARS OF THE IBC: EXAMINING JUDICIAL ACTIVISM, STRUCTURAL FLAWS, AND RESOLUTION REALITIES

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (IBC) completed its ten years in 2026. This paper evaluates the decade along five axes: the Code's resolution rate and recovery record; its principal structural and practical difficulties; patterns of misuse; the judge-made devices of reverse and project-wise insolvency in real estate; and the homebuyer jurisprudence that produced them. It argues that the headline claim of a 58 per cent 'rescue' rate conflates three different outcomes, that only about one in five closed processes ends in an approved plan, and that the Code's value-preservation record is stronger than its speed or recovery-against-claims record. It further argues that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act 2026 is best read as Parliament's reversal of several judicial gloss-lines (discretionary admission, statutory first-charge claims), while the project-wise model for real estate still lacks a firm statutory footing.