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Judgment
Per: Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain:
This appeal is directed against the order dated 11.08.2022, passed by the Adjudicating Authority (National Company Law Tribunal, New Delhi, Bench-VI) by which an application bearing 2969 of 2022 in IB 558/ND/2019 has been dismissed.
The brief facts of this case are that Punjab National Bank (Financial Creditor) field an application under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (in short ‘Code’) against M/s Rathi Ispat Ltd. (Corporate Debtor) before the Adjudicating Authority which was admitted on 17.12.2019 and Rajkumar Gupta was appointed as Interim Resolution Professional (IRP).
The Committee of Creditors (COC) in its 3rd meeting unanimously confirmed the appointment of Debashish Nanda as the Resolution Professional (RP). In this regard, I.A. No. 2063 of 2020 was filed, which was allowed by the Adjudicating Authority on 29.05.2020. The CoC in its 4th meeting unanimously decided to initiate the liquidation proceedings against the Corporate Debtor. The application bearing I.A. No. 3173 of 2020 was filed for initiation of liquidation proceedings, which was allowed by the Adjudicating Authority on 26.08.2020.
After initiation of liquidation proceedings, public announcement was made on 31.08.2020 in Form B and claims were invited. The last date for submission of claims was 25.09.2020.
The Appellant submitted its claim in Form C (claim for Operational Creditors) dated 24.09.2020 allegedly without supporting documents. The Respondent sent a letter on 25.09.2020, acknowledged the receipt and asked the Appellant to provide record/paper/documents pertaining to sub station operating in the vicinity of Corporate Debtor because the Corporate Debtor has lease hold rights on a land parcel situated at A-2, Industrial Area, South Side GT, Ispat Nagar, Ghaziabad, which was to be auctioned in liquidation and the sub station was operating on the vicinity of the actionable land.
Reply to the letter dated 25.09.2020 sent by the Appellant on 15.10.2020, was not found sufficient, therefore, the Respondent, vide letter dated 04.12.2020, asked the Appellant that it should provide within a period of 7 days documents/evidence in the auctionable land on which the substation was established. But according to the Respondent the relevant documents were not submitted and ultimately vide a letter dated 22.02.2022 the Appellant was informed about the rejection of its claim. The Appellant then filed an application bearing I.A. No. 2969 of 2022 before the Adjudicating Authority, which was rejected by the impugned order on the ground that the liquidator has submitted a closure application in the matter which suggest that the liquidation is more or less over and entertaining the application at that stage was not proper.
Be that as it may, today during the course of hearing, Counsel for the Respondent produced the order passed in I.A. No. 3348/ND/2022 in CP (IB) No. 558/ND/2019 under Section 54 of the Code by which the Corporate Debtor has been dissolved, assets of the Corporate Debtor were liquidated, the proceeds were distributed amongst the financial creditors and there was nothing left with the liquidator. In such circumstances, Counsel for Respondent has submitted that the present appeal has become infructuous.
Counsel for the Appellant has not disputed this fact because of the copy of the order dated 28.11.2022 passed by the Adjudicating Authority in I.A. No. 3384/ND/2022 is produced before us but it is submitted that the Respondent has committed an error in not appreciating the fact that the claim was submitted by the Appellant before the due date. In this regard, it is submitted that due date was 25.09.2020 and claim was submitted on 24.09.2020 and thus, it was within limitation.
However, Counsel for Respondent has vehemently argued that a incomplete application much less claim without supporting documents/evidence was inconsequential and the Appellant had been asked time and again by the Respondent to submit the relevant documents to consider his claim but it took long time much less beyond the period prescribed and thus, the claim was rejected and the application filed by the Appellant bearing no. 2969 of 2022 has rightly been dismissed by the Adjudicating Authority.
We have heard Counsel for the parties and after examining the record, are of the considered opinion that there is no merit in the present appeal as it had virtually become redundant with the efflux of time. No doubt that Form-C was submitted by the Appellant before the cut-off date i.e. on 24.09.2020 but it was sans relevants documents which were not supplied despite giving opportunities and by the time those were sought to be supplied, much water had already flown because the application I.A. No. 3384 of 2022 was on its last legs. Now the liquidation estate of the Corporate Debtor has been disposed off. The proceeds have already been distributed. The Corporate Debtor has been dissolved, therefore, cause shown in the present appeal has become meaningless, as such the appeal has become redundant and infructuous and the same is hereby dismissed. No costs.