Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited v. Equipment Conductors and Cables Limited
A. K. SIKRI, J. 1. The order of the National Company Law
Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (for short, ‘NCLAT) dated September
04, 2018 is the subject matter of challenge in the present proceedings. It
is a short order, which is reproduced herein its entirety.
“Having heard learned counsel for the parties and being satisfied
of the grounds shown, six days delay in preferring the appeal is
condoned. I.A. No. 973 of 2018 stands disposed of.
Prima facie case has been made out by the Appellant in view of
the part decree awarded by the competent court under Sec tion
34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and the review
application under Section 37 preferred by the Respondent having
rejected on 29 th January, 2016.
However, taking into consideration the fact that if appeal is allowed
and Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process is initiated against
the Respondent – “Transmission Corporate of Andhra Pradesh
Ltd.’, the government undertaking may face trouble. Therefore,
by way of last chance we grant one opportunity to respondents to
settle the claim with the appellant, failing which this A ppellate
Tribunal may pass appropriate order on merit.
Post the case ‘for admission’ on 4 th October, 2018. Appeal may
be disposed of at the stage of admission.”
2. Though, in the first brush, it appears that matter is still at the
stage of admission and the aforesaid order is an interim order, a careful
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reading thereof would clearly bring out that the NCLAT perceives that
the appellant herein owes money to the respondent and for this reason a
chance is given to the appellant to settle the claim of th e respondent,
otherwise order would be passed initiating Corporat e Insolvency
Resolution Process (for short, ‘CIRP’). According to the appellant, no
amount is payable and the order in question is causing serious prejudice
to the appellant which is asked to settle the purported claim, failing which,
to face insolvency proceedings. It may also be recorded at this stage
itself that the appeal pending before NCLAT is filed by the respondent
herein which is against the Orders dated April 09, 2018 passed by the
National Company Law Tribunal (for short, ‘NCLT’), Hyderabad. By
the said order, the NCLT has dismissed the petition filed by the respondent
herein under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code , 2016
(hereinafter referred to as the ‘IBC’). To put it briefly at this stage, the
NCLT, after detailed deliberations, has come to the conclusion that the
Company Petition filed by the respondent was not maintainable as the
claims which were preferred by the respondent against the appe llant
and on the basis of which respondent asserts that it has to receive monies
from the appellant are not tenable and in any case these are not disputed
claims. This assertion is based on the fact that these very claims of the
respondent were subject matter of arbitration and the award was passed
rejecting these claims as time barred. Moreover, the company petition
itself suffers various fundamental defects. On that basis , NCLT held
that there is a valid dispute, rather no dispute as issue in question was
substantially dealt with by various courts as mentioned in the order passed
by NCLT.
3. Before going into the details of the said order passed by NCLT
it would be appropriate to refer to some important events in chronological
order, which have a bearing on the present case.
4. The appellant is a Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh
Government and is successor of Andhra Pradesh State Electricity Board
(for short, ‘APSEB’) and is in the activities relating to transmission of
electricity. It had awarded certain contracts to the r espondent herein
for supply of goods and services. Some disputes arose and the respondent
initiated arbitration proceedings. As many as 82 claims were filed by
the respondent before Haryana Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation
Council (hereinafter referred to as ‘Arbitral Counc il’). These
proceedings culminated into Award dated June 21, 2010. The Arbitral
TRANSMISSION CORPORATION OF A.P. LTD. v. EQUIPMENT
CONDUCTORS AND CABLES LTD. [A. K. SIKRI, J.]
Council came to the conclusion that the claims made on the bas is of
Invoice Nos. 1-57 were barred by law of limitation and, there fore, no
amount could be awarded against the said claims. In respect of Invoice
Nos. 58-82, the award was passed in favour of the respondent. In these
proceedings, we are not concerned with the award in respect of Invoice
Nos. 58-82.
5. Against the aforesaid award rejecting claims in res pect of
Invoice Nos. 1-57 as time barred, the respondent he rein filed an
application under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act before
the Additional District Judge, Chandigarh. The Additional District Judge
passed the order dated August 28, 2014 in the said application thereby
remanding the case back to the Arbitral Council for fresh decision.
Against this order, the appellant filed the appeal before the High Court
of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. This appeal was allowed by the
High Court by its order dated January 29, 2016 thereby setting aside the
direction of the Additional District Judge remanding the matter to Arbitral
Council for fresh consideration.
6. It may be mentioned at this stage that when the appeal was
pending before the High Court, the respondent had moved an application
for clarification/review of order dated August 28, 2014. This application
was, however, dismissed on August 27, 2015. It may also be mentioned
that insofar as order dated January 29, 2016 of the Punjab and Haryana
High Court setting aside the order of the Additional Di strict Judge
remanding back the matter to the Arbitral Council is concerned, the
appellant herein had filed an application for clarification of the said order
under Section 151 of the Civil Procedure Code. That application was,
however, dismissed by the High Court.
7. The respondent herein filed execution petition under Order XXI
Rule 21 of the CPC for execution of judgment dated January 29, 2016
passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana as well as t he award
dated June 21, 2010 passed by the Arbitral Council. Insofar as award of
Arbitral Council is concerned, as noted above the respondent’s c laim
pertaining to Invoice Nos. 58-82 was allowed and the execution thereof
was sought. The respondent, however, filed another execution petition
seeking execution of amount in respect of Invoice Nos. 1-57 also. This
application was entertained and both the petitions were dir ected to be
dealt with simultaneously vide orders dated August 17, 2016. That order
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was challenged by the appellant herein by filing Revision Petition before
the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad. The High Court vide its
order dated November 08, 2016 allowed the said Revision Petition holding
that there was no award in respect of claim towards Invoice Nos. 1-57
and, therefore, it was not permissible for the respondent to seek the
execution. The relevant portion of the orders passed by the High Court
of Judicature at Hyderabad is reproduced hereinbelow:
“17. From the above, once there is no re-determination of the
disallowed claim, much less by allowing the claim in respect of
Item Nos. 1 to 57 of annexure-1 by the Arbitration Court-cum-
Additional District Judge Chandigarh under Section 34 of the Act
in the Arbitration Case No. 361 of 2010 for review also ended in
dismissal and appeal only set-aside to the extent of remand in
practically directing instead of remanding for determination only
by the arbitration court. Once it requires determination and there
is no determination, then there is no final award for execution
much less to enforce under Section 36 of the Act.
18. Once such is the case, the objection filed by APTRANS CO
before executing Court for numbering as unsustainable for no
enforceable award, so far as item Nos. 1 to 57 are concerned and
before the executing Court, even filed objections b y the
APTRANSCO, the executing Court did not discuss and even
ignored the submissions, simply from the impugned order referred
supra perused only the execution petition and considered only the
submissions of the D.Hr, in passing the order, which is uncalled
for, for not a judicial adjudication in passing the order in the eye of
law and thereby same is unsustainable and prone to rev ision
jurisdiction of this Court to sit against and to set-aside.
19. It is made clear from the above, thereby that th ere is no
enforceable award to execute under Section 36 of the Arbitration
Act from the arbitration proceeding so far as the claim of Items 1
to 57 is concerned for what arbitrator held the claim as barred by
law and the objecting Court-cum-arbitration Court in A.C. No.
361 of 2010 even held not barred by law, did not determine, but
for remanded to re-determine in tis regard and same was even
questioned in review, the review petition was dismissed and other
side when questioned what was held by the High Court is that
TRANSMISSION CORPORATION OF A.P. LTD. v. EQUIPMENT
CONDUCTORS AND CABLES LTD. [A. K. SIKRI, J.]
remand is not correct for lack of jurisdiction, thereby practically
for re-determination and once it is not re-determined, there is no
award and when there is no award, there is no quest ion of
execution and where there is no question of execution, there i s
not question of entertaining the unnumbered E.P. much less to
number the same or even to pass any consequential pro-order
that are impugned in the revision.”
8. When the things rested at that, the respondent approached the
NCLT by means of a Company Petition under Section 9 of IBC, 2016
read with Rule 6 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy (AAA) Rules, 2016. In
this petition, the respondent stated that it had served demand notice dated
October 14, 2017 upon the appellant under the provisions of the I BC,
thereby claiming the amount of Rs. 45,69,31,233/- which was not paid
by the appellant. As mentioned above, this petition was dismissed by the
NCLT vide its order dated April 09, 2018. Against this order, the
respondent has filed appeal before the NCLAT in which impugned orders
dated September 04, 2018 have been passed.
9. Section 9 provides for initiation of corporate i nsolvency
resolution process by operating creditor on the basis of application filed
by such a creditor. It, inter alia, states that whenever a notice, demanding
the payment as per notice or invoice, under sub-section (1) of Section 8
of IBC and the operational creditor does not receive payment from the
corporate debtor, after the expiry of a period of 10 days from the date of
delivery of such notice or invoice demanding payment operational creditor
may file an obligation before the adjudicating authority for initiating CIRP.
Section 8 deals with insolvency resolution. Sub-section (1) thereof
stipulates that an operational creditor may, on the occurrence of a default,
deliver a demand notice of unpaid operational debtor copy of an invoice
demanding payment of the amount involved in the default to the corporate
debtor in such form and manner as may be prescribed. Sub-section (2)
puts an obligation upon the corporate debtor to respond to the said demand
notice or copy of invoice within a period of 10 days of the receipt thereof
by stating that dispute qua the said demand exists between the parties or
by repayment of unpaid operational debt and sending proof t hereof to
the operational creditor.
10. From the aforesaid, it follows that existence of an undisputed
debt is sine qua non of initiating CIRP. It also follows that the adjudicating
authority shall satisfy itself that there is a debt payab le and there is
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operational debt and the corporate debtor has not repaid the same. For
the purpose of clarity, it would be apt to reproduce Section 9 in its entirety.
“9. Application for initiation of corporate insolvency reso lution
process by operational creditor.—(1) After the expiry of the period
of ten days from the date of delivery of the notice or invoice
demanding payment under sub-section (1) of section 8, if the
operational creditor does not receive payment from the corporate
debtor or notice of the dispute under sub-section (2) of section 8,
the operational creditor may file an application be fore the
Adjudicating Authority for initiating a corporate inso lvency
resolution process.
(2) The application under sub-section (1) shall be filed in such
form and manner and accompanied with such fee as may be
prescribed.
(3) The operational creditor shall, along with the applicat ion
furnish—
(a) a copy of the invoice demanding payment or demand
notice delivered by the operational creditor to the corporate debtor;
(b) an affidavit to the effect that there is no no tice given
by the corporate debtor relating to a dispute of th e unpaid
operational debt;
(c) a copy of the certificate from the financial institutions
maintaining accounts of the operational creditor confirming that
there is no payment of an unpaid operational debt by the corporate
debtor; and
(d) such other information as may be specified.
(4) An operational creditor initiating a corporate i nsolvency
resolution process under this section, may propose a resoluti on
professional to act as an interim resolution professional.
(5) The Adjudicating Authority shall, within fourteen days of the
receipt of the application under sub-section (2), by an order—
(i) admit the application and communicate such decision
to the operational creditor and the corporate debtor if,—
TRANSMISSION CORPORATION OF A.P. LTD. v. EQUIPMENT
CONDUCTORS AND CABLES LTD. [A. K. SIKRI, J.]
(a) the application made under sub-section (2) is complete;
(b) there is no repayment of the unpaid operational debt;
(c) the invoice or notice for payment to the corporate debtor
has been delivered by the operational creditor;
(d) no notice of dispute has been received by the operational
creditor or there is no record of dispute in the information utility;
and
(e) there is no disciplinary proceeding pending against any
resolution professional proposed under sub-section (4), if any;
(ii) reject the application and communicate such decision to
the operational creditor and the corporate debtor, if—
(a) the application made under sub-section (2) is incomplete;
(b) there has been repayment of the unpaid operational debt;
(c) the creditor has not delivered the invoice or notice for
payment to the corporate debtor;
(d) notice of dispute has been received by the operat ional
creditor or there is a record of dispute in the information utility;
or
(e) any disciplinary proceeding is pending against any proposed
resolution professional:
Provided that Adjudicating Authority, shall before rejecting an
application under sub-clause (a) of clause (ii) give a notice to the
applicant to rectify the defect in his application within seven days
of the date of receipt of such notice from the Adju dicating
Authority.
(6) The corporate insolvency resolution process shall commence
from the date of admission of the application under sub-secti on
(5) of this section.”
11. Clause (ii) of sub-section (5) stipulates the circumstances under
which the application filed by the operational creditor can be rejected.
Sub-clause (d) thereof stipulates the eventuality where there is a notice
of dispute sent by the corporate debtor to the operational creditor.
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12. Here, the matter was taken up before the Arbitral Counc il
insofar as claim under Invoice Nos. 1-53 is concerned, the same was
specifically rejected by the Arbitral Council on the ground tha t it had
become time barred. The respondent challenged the said part of the
award of the Arbitral Council, but was not successful. On the basis of
certain observations made by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in
its decision dated January 29, 2016 , the respondent attempted to recover
the amount by filing execution petition before the Civil Court, Hyderabad.
However, that attempt of the respondent was also unsuccessful inasmuch
as the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad categorically he ld that
since that particular amount was not payable under the award, execution
was not maintainable. After failing to recover the amount in the aforesaid
manner, the respondent issued notice to the appellant under Section 8 of
the IBC treating itself as the operational creditor and app ellant as the
corporate debtor. The appellant specifically refuted this claim. In spite
thereof, application under Section 9 was filed befo re the NCLT,
Hyderabad which was dismissed by it vide order dated April 09, 2018.
It is in appeal against the said order, the NCLAT has now passed the
impugned order.
13. The NCLAT has not discussed the merits of the case and also
not stated how the amount is payable to the respondent in spite of the
aforesaid events which were noted by the NCLT as we ll.
Notwithstanding, it has given wielded threat to the appellant by giving a
one chance, ‘to settle the claim with the appellant (respondent herein),
failing which this Appellate Tribunal may pass appropriate orders on
merit’. It has also stated that though the matter is posted for admission
on the next date, the appeal would be disposed of at the stage of admission
itself. There is a clear message in the aforesaid order directing the
appellant to pay the amount to the respondent, failing which CIRP shall
be initiated against the appellant.
14. The only argument advanced by learned counsel for th e
respondent before this Court was that the High Court of Punja b and
Haryana while setting aside the remand order passed by the Additional
District Judge did not hold that Invoice Nos. 1-57 are time barred.
Therefore, the respondent had a valid claim under those invoices. This
argument cannot be countenanced. As of today, there is no award o f
the Arbitral Council with respect to invoices at Sl. Nos. 1-57. There is
no order of any other court as well qua these invoices. In fact, Arbitral
TRANSMISSION CORPORATION OF A.P. LTD. v. EQUIPMENT
CONDUCTORS AND CABLES LTD. [A. K. SIKRI, J.]
Council specifically rejected the claim of the respondent as time barred.
It is pertinent to mention that respondent had moved an application before
the Arbitral Council for determination of amount to be paid by the
appellant. However, this application was specifically dismissed by the
Arbitral Council as not maintainable.
15. In a recent judgment of this Court in Mobilox Innovations
Private Limited vs. Kirusa Software Private Limited 1, this Court has
categorically laid down that IBC is not intended to be sub stitute to a
recovery forum. It is also laid down that whenever there is existence of
real dispute, the IBC provisions cannot be invoked. We would like to
reproduce the following discussion from the said judgment:
“33. The scheme under Sections 8 and 9 of the Code, appears to
be that an operational creditor, as defined, may, on the occurrence
of a default (i.e. on non-payment of a debt, any part whereof has
become due and payable and has not been repaid), deli ver a
demand notice of such unpaid operational debt or deliver the copy
of an invoice demanding payment of such amount to the corporate
debtor in the form set out in Rule 5 of the Insolve ncy and
Bankruptcy (Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2016
read with Form 3 or 4, as the case may be [Section 8(1)]. Within
a period of 10 days of the receipt of such demand notice or copy
of invoice, the corporate debtor must bring to the notice of the
operational creditor the existence of a dispute and/or the reco rd
of the pendency of a suit or arbitration proceeding filed before the
receipt of such notice or invoice in relation to such dispute [Section
8(2)( a)]. What is important is that the existence of the disput e
and/or the suit or arbitration proceeding must be pre-existing i.e.
it must exist before the receipt of the demand notice or invoice, as
the case may be. In case the unpaid operational debt has been
repaid, the corporate debtor shall within a period of the self-same
10 days send an attested copy of the record of the electr onic
transfer of the unpaid amount from the bank account of th e
corporate debtor or send an attested copy of the record that the
operational creditor has encashed a cheque or otherwise received
payment from the corporate debtor [Section 8(2)( b)]. It is only if,
after the expiry of the period of the said 10 days, the operational
creditor does not either receive payment from the corporate debtor
1 (2018) 1 SCC 353
1079
or notice of dispute, that the operational creditor may trigger the
insolvency process by filing an application before the adjudicating
authority under Sections 9(1) and 9(2). This application is to be
filed under Rule 6 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Application
to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2016 in Form 5, accompanied
with documents and records that are required under the said form.
Under Rule 6(2), the applicant is to dispatch by registered post or
speed post, a copy of the application to the registered offi ce of
the corporate debtor. Under Section 9(3), along with the application,
the statutory requirement is to furnish a copy of the invoic e or
demand notice, an affidavit to the effect that there is no not ice
given by the corporate debtor relating to a dispute of the unpaid
operational debt and a copy of the certificate from the f inancial
institution maintaining accounts of the operational creditor
confirming that there is no payment of an unpaid operational debt
by the corporate debtor. Apart from this information, the other
information required under Form 5 is also to be given. Once this is
done, the adjudicating authority may either admit the application
or reject it. If the application made under sub-sect ion (2) is
incomplete, the adjudicating authority, under the proviso to sub-
section (5), may give a notice to the applicant to rectif y defects
within 7 days of the receipt of the notice from the adjudicatin g
authority to make the application complete. Once this is done, and
the adjudicating authority finds that either there is no repayment
of the unpaid operational debt after the invoice [Section 9(5)( i)( b)]
or the invoice or notice of payment to the corporate debtor has
been delivered by the operational creditor [Section 9(5)( i)( c)], or
that no notice of dispute has been received by the operation al
creditor from the corporate debtor or that there is no record of
such dispute in the information utility [Section 9(5)( i)( d)], or that
there is no disciplinary proceeding pending against any resolution
professional proposed by the operational creditor [ Section
9(5)( i)( e)], it shall admit the application within 14 days of the receipt
of the application, after which the corporate insolvency resolution
process gets triggered. On the other hand, the adju dicating
authority shall, within 14 days of the receipt of an application by
the operational creditor, reject such application if the application
is incomplete and has not been completed within the period of 7
TRANSMISSION CORPORATION OF A.P. LTD. v. EQUIPMENT
CONDUCTORS AND CABLES LTD. [A. K. SIKRI, J.]
days granted by the proviso [Section 9(5)( ii )( a)]. It may also reject
the application where there has been repayment of the operational
debt [Section 9(5)( ii )( b)], or the creditor has not delivered the
invoice or notice for payment to the corporate debtor [Se ction
9(5)( ii )( c)]. It may also reject the application if the notice of dispute
has been received by the operational creditor or there is a record
of dispute in the information utility [Section 9(5)( ii )( d)]. Section
9(5)( ii )( d) refers to the notice of an existing dispute that has so
been received, as it must be read with Section 8(2)( a). Also, if
any disciplinary proceeding is pending against any propos ed
resolution professional, the application may be rejected [Section
9(5)( ii )( e)].
34. Therefore, the adjudicating authority, when examining an
application under Section 9 of the Act will have to determine:
(i) Whether there is an “operational debt” as defined exceedi ng
Rs 1 lakh? (See Section 4 of the Act)
(ii ) Whether the documentary evidence furnished with t he
application shows that the aforesaid debt is due and payable and
has not yet been paid? and
(iii ) Whether there is existence of a dispute between the parti es
or the record of the pendency of a suit or arbitration proceeding
filed before the receipt of the demand notice of the unpaid
operational debt in relation to such dispute?
If any one of the aforesaid conditions is lacking, the application
would have to be rejected. Apart from the above, the adjudicating
authority must follow the mandate of Section 9, as outlined above,
and in particular the mandate of Section 9(5) of the Act, and admit
or reject the application, as the case may be, depending upon the
factors mentioned in Section 9(5) of the Act.
xx xx xx
37. It is now important to construe Section 8 of the Code. The
operational creditors are those creditors to whom an operational
debt is owed, and an operational debt, in turn, means a claim i n
respect of the provision of goods or services, including employment,
or a debt in respect of repayment of dues arising under any law
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for the time being in force and payable to the Government or to a
local authority. This has to be contrasted with financial debts that
may be owed to financial creditors, which was the subject-matter
of the judgment delivered by this Court on 31-8-201 7 in
Innoventive Industries Ltd. v. ICICI Bank (Civil Appeals Nos.
8337-38 of 2017). In this judgment, we had held tha t the
adjudicating authority under Section 7 of the Code has to ascertain
the existence of a default from the records of the inform ation
utility or on the basis of evidence furnished by the financial creditor
within 14 days. The corporate debtor is entitled to point out to the
adjudicating authority that a default has not occurred; in the sense
that a debt, which may also include a disputed claim, is not due
i.e. it is not payable in law or in fact. This Court then went on to
state: (SCC p. 440, paras 29-30)
“29 . The scheme of Section 7 stands in contrast with the scheme
under Section 8 where an operational creditor is, on the occurrence
of a default, to first deliver a demand notice of the unpaid debt to
the operational debtor in the manner provided in Section 8(1) of
the Code. Under Section 8(2), the corporate debtor can, within a
period of 10 days of receipt of the demand notice or copy of the
invoice mentioned in sub-section (1), bring to the notice of the
operational creditor the existence of a dispute or the record of the
pendency of a suit or arbitration proceedings, which is pre-existing
— i.e. before such notice or invoice was received by the corporate
debtor. The moment there is existence of such a dispute , the
operational creditor gets out of the clutches of the Code.
30 . On the other hand, as we have seen, in the case of a corporate
debtor who commits a default of a financial debt, the adjudicating
authority has merely to see the records of the information utility
or other evidence produced by the financial creditor to satis fy
itself that a default has occurred. It is of no matter that the debt is
disputed so long as the debt is “due” i.e. payable unless interdicted
by some law or has not yet become due in the sense that it is
payable at some future date. It is only when this is proved to the
satisfaction of the adjudicating authority that the adjudicating
authority may reject an application and not otherwise.”
xx xx xx
TRANSMISSION CORPORATION OF A.P. LTD. v. EQUIPMENT
CONDUCTORS AND CABLES LTD. [A. K. SIKRI, J.]
42. This being the case, is it not open to the adjudicating authority
to then go into whether a dispute does or does not exist?
43. It is important to notice that Section 255 read with the Eleventh
Schedule of the Code has amended Section 271 of the Companies
Act, 2013 so that a company being unable to pay its debts is no
longer a ground for winding up a company. The old law contained
in Madhusudan has, therefore, disappeared with the
disappearance of this ground in Section 271 of the Companies
Act.
44. We have already noticed that in the first Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Bill, 2015 that was annexed to the Bankruptcy Law
Reforms Committee Report, Section 5(4) defined “dispute” as
meaning a “bona fide suit or arbitration proceedings…”. In it s
present avatar, Section 5(6) excludes the expression “bona fide”
which is of significance. Therefore, it is difficult to imp ort the
expression “bona fide” into Section 8(2)( a) in order to judge
whether a dispute exists or not.
45. The expression “existence” has been understood as follows:
“Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives the following meaning
of the word “ existence ”:
(a) Reality, as opp. to appearance.
(b) The fact or state of existing; actual possession of being.
Continued being as a living creature, life, esp. under adver se
conditions.
Something that exists; an entity, a being. All that exists. (P.
894, Oxford English Dictionary )”
xx xx xx
51. It is clear, therefore, that once the operational cre ditor has
filed an application, which is otherwise complete, the adjudicating
authority must reject the application under Section 9(5)(2)( d) if
notice of dispute has been received by the operational creditor or
there is a record of dispute in the information utility. It is clear that
such notice must bring to the notice of the operational creditor the
“existence” of a dispute or the fact that a suit or arbitration
proceeding relating to a dispute is pending between the par ties.
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Therefore, all that the adjudicating authority is to see at this stage
is whether there is a plausible contention which requires further
investigation and that the “dispute” is not a patently feeble legal
argument or an assertion of fact unsupported by evidence. It is
important to separate the grain from the chaff and to rej ect a
spurious defence which is mere bluster. However, in doing so, the
Court does not need to be satisfied that the defence is likel y to
succeed. The Court does not at this stage examine the merits of
the dispute except to the extent indicated above. So long a s a
dispute truly exists in fact and is not spurious, hypothetical or
illusory, the adjudicating authority has to reject the application.”
The aforesaid principle squarely applied to the present case.
16. As a result, we allow this appeal and set aside the impugned
order dated September 04, 2018 passed by the NCLAT. In a norma l
course, the matter should have been remanded back to the NCLAT for
deciding the appeal of the respondent herein filed before the NCLAT, on
merits. However, as this Court has gone into merits and found that
order of the NCLT is justified, no purpose would be served in remanding
the case back to the NCLAT. Consequence would be to dismiss t he
Company Appeal (80) (Insolvency) No. 366 of 2018 and miscellaneous
applications filed by the respondent before the NCLAT. No order as to
costs.
Ankit Gyan Appeal allowed.
TRANSMISSION CORPORATION OF A.P. LTD. v. EQUIPMENT
CONDUCTORS AND CABLES LTD. [A. K. SIKRI, J.]