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Judgment
Heard Learned Counsel for the Appellant and Respondent.
This appeal has been filed against the order dated 31.10.2022 by which order the Adjudicating Authority has rejected Section 9 application on the ground that it does not fulfil the threshold of Rs. 94,68,029/-.
Learned Counsel for the Appellant submits that in part-IV of the section 9 application the claim was Rs. 1,20,50,861/- which comprised the principal amount of Rs. 94,68,029/- with interest of Rs. 25,82,832/.
Learned Counsel for the Appellant has also referred to the Security Service Agreement dated 19.07.2017 under which there was specific clause of interest @ 18% to service provider in case of delayed payment beyond the due date.
Learned Counsel for the Appellant has relied on the Judgement in Prashat Agarwal Vs. Vikash Parasrampuria. of this Tribunal in Company Appeal (AT)(Ins.) No. 690/2022.
This tribunal in the said judgement has laid down the following in paragraph (vi):-
“vi) It is, therefore, clear from these facts that the total amount for maintainability of claim will include both principal debt amount as well as interest on delayed payment which was clearly stipulated in the invoice itself. It is noted that the total principal debt amount of Rs. 97,87,220/- along with interest the total debt makes total outstanding as Rs. 1,60,87,838/- . Thus, the total debt outstanding of OC is above Rs. 1 crore as per requirement of Section 4 IBC read with notification No. S.O 1205 (E) dated 24.3.2020 (Supra), and meets the criteria of Rs. 1crore as per Section 4 of IBC and Application is therefore maintainable in present case. We concur with the orders of Adjudicating Authority on this issue also. (vii) We, therefore, do not find any merit in the present appeal and dismiss the same”.
In the present case, the claim of the Appellant cannot be said to be not fulfilling Rs. one crore and the Adjudicating Authority committed error in rejecting section 9 application.
Learned Counsel for Respondent submits that there are other issues in the application which needs to be considered.
In view of the above, we set aside the order dated 31.10.2022 and revive the application before the Adjudicating Authority to be heard and decided in accordance with law. It is made clear that we are not expressing any opinion on the merits of the application and contention of both the parties are left open.
The Appeal is allowed accordingly.