New Delhi, Sept. 8 -- Two wrongs don't make a right. That old maxim can be applied to the two events surrounding Zee founder Subhash Chandra's personal insolvency case. The first is hard to defend: a resolution that allowed Rs.22,006 crore in admitted bank claims to be settled for Rs.6.25 crore, effectively a 99.97% haircut. The second is in some ways more worrying, even if only because of its timing. Within days of a very public outrage over the haircut, an unprecedented five-member NCLT bench froze the settlement and Chandra's assets.

Sure, the first order may well have needed correction. But if public outrage influenced the timing or intensity of the intervention, it appears less a remedy and more another wrong.

To be fair, the tribu...