JUDGEMENT

(Date: 21.04.2022) [Per.: Dr. Alok Srivastava, Member (Technical)] The present appeal is preferred by the Appellant ‘Punjab National Bank’ (in short ‘PNB’) against the order dated 14.12.2021 (hereafter called ‘Impugned Order’) passed by the Adjudicating Authority (National Company Law Tribunal, Kolkata Bench) in I.A. No. 922/KB/2021 in CP (IB) No. 159/KB/2019, whereby the Adjudicating Authority has, inter alia, directed the Resolution Professional (in short ‘RP’) to complete the process of voting on the resolution plan under consideration before 22.12.2021 on the basis of the Committee of Creditors (‘CoC’ in short) as it exists on 14.12.2021.

2. The Appellant has stated that the Adjudicating Authority has passed the impugned order for completing the process of voting on the resolution plan in I.A. No. 922/KB/2021 without deciding the application bearing I.A. (IB) No.

1078/KB/2021 filed by the Appellant, inter alia, praying for acceptance of its claim against the Corporate Debtor ‘M/s. Zenith Finesse India Private Limited’, because the acceptance of the claim would change the composition/voting share in the CoC.

Aggrieved by the said order which affects its rights in the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (in short ‘CIRP’), the Appellant has filed this appeal under Section 61 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (in short ‘IBC’).

3. In brief, the facts of the case as stated by the Appellant are that the CIRP of the corporate debtor Purple Advertising was initiated vide order of the Adjudicating Authority dated 20.11.2019. The period of 90 days for submission of claims was over on 29.12.2020 and the Appellant/PNB filed its claim vide email dated 05.03.2020 (claim filed by United Bank of India which was later merged into Punjab National Bank) to the RP in ‘Form-C’ relating to corporate guarantee given to United Bank of India by ‘M/s. Zenith Finesse India Private Limited’ for ‘M/s Purple Advertising’. The said claim which was later forwarded by the Punjab National Bank on 08.03.2021 to the RP, was rejected on 18.03.2021 by the RP on the ground that the claim was filed after the stipulated period of 90 days for submission of claims.

Thereafter, the Appellant/PNB obtained orders dated 08.04.2021 in I.A. No. 391 of 2021 from the Adjudicating Authority condoning the delay in filing of claim by PNB. Thereafter RP, vide email dated 10.04.2021, requested proof of claim from the Appellant which was submitted by the Appellant on 20.04.2021 whereas the period of 270 days of the CIRP expired on 12.04.2021. Upon rejection of the documents submitted in proof of claim as being beyond the time period of 270 days, the Appellant filed another application namely I.A. No. 1078 of 2021 before the Adjudicating Authority praying for direction to the RP to verify its claim and make the Appellant a member of the CoC.

While this I.A. No. 1078 of 2021 was under consideration of the Adjudicating Authority, an order was passed in IA 912/2021 and IA 988/2021 on 14.12.2021 directing the CoC to consider the resolution pan submitted by Loka Properties Pvt. Ltd. and allowing exclusion of 245 days from the CIRP period. It also directed that the CoC, as it existed on 14.12.2021, should consider Loka Properties Pvt. Ltd.’s resolution plan which was subsequently approved in the 20th Meeting of CoC held on 24.12.2021.

4. The Appellant has claimed that the order of the Adjudicating Authority in I.A. No. 918 of 2021 and I.A. No. 922 of 2021 which was given for consideration of resolution plan in the CoC excluded its rightful position/status in the CoC as its claim was not considered by the RP and when it filed I.A. No. 1078/KB/2021 to condone the delay in submission of documents in support of its claim it was not decided in time by the Adjudicating Authority and the resolution plan was finalised by CoC.

5. We heard the arguments of all the parties in the appeal and also perused the record.

6. The Ld. Counsel for t