Item No.13
THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE HIMA KOHLI
AND
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE B. VIJAYSEN REDDY
WRIT PETITION No.11557 of 2021
ORDER: (Per the Hon'ble the Chief Justice Hima Kohli)
1. The present petition has been filed by the petitioner who claims
to be a director/promoter of the Corporate Debtor, assailing the order
dated 13.04.2018, passed by the respondent No.1/National Company
Law Tribunal, Hyderabad Bench and challenging the locus of the respondent No.3 (petitioner before the NCLT) to file said the petition on the plea that it is not a financial creditor, but only a secured creditor.
2. On the first call, the matter was passed over at the request of learned counsel for the petitioner. He was requested to examine the recent decision of the Supreme Court in Ghanashyam Mishra and Sons Private Limited v. Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company Limited, reported as 2021 SCC OnLine SC 313 and address this court on the maintainability of the present petition in the light of the relief prayed.
3. On the second call, learned counsel for the petitioner seeks to wriggle out of addressing arguments on the maintainability of the present petition by requesting for a date. The said request is declined. On some pushing and prodding, learned counsel for the petitioner W.P.No.11557 of 2021 Page 1 of 3 reluctantly concedes that the resolution plan in respect of the Corporate Debtor was duly approved by the Adjudicating Authority under Section 31(1) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, on 09.01.2021.
4. In view of the observation made by the Supreme Court in the captioned decision that once a resolution plan is duly approved by the Adjudicating Authority, the claims as provided in the resolution plan shall stand frozen and will be binding on the Corporate Debtor and its employees and such of the claims, which are not a part of the resolution plan, shall stand extinguished and that no person will be entitled to initiate or continue any proceedings in respect of claims, which are not a part of the resolution plan, we decline to entertain the present petition.
5. It is also noteworthy that the order impugned in this petition was passed by the NCLT as long back as on 13.04.2018. No steps have been taken by the petitioner over a span of three years to challenge the said order. Admittedly, the respondent No.3/IFCI had filed a claim before the Resolution Professional and the said claim has been duly approved by the Committee of Creditors. Only after the resolution plan has been drawn up, submitted and approved by the NCLT, has the present petition been filed, solely to somehow delay the pending proceeding before the NCLT.
W.P.No.11557 of 2021 Page 2 of 3
6. In view of the judgment of the Supreme Court referred to above, we decline to entertain the present petition, which is dismissed along with the pending applications.
_________________ HIMA KOHLI, CJ ______________________ B. VIJAYSEN REDDY, J 30.04.2021 Lur W.P.No.11557 of 2021 Page 3 of 3