The distinction between financial and operational debt hinges on whether the debt is secured against the time value of money or related to the provision of goods/services.

ORDER

1. The present Application IA 5996/2024 is filed under Section 60(5) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,2016 read with Rule 11 of the NCLT Rules against the rejection of claim lodged by the Applicant, M/s ASL Sales & Services LLP with the Respondent being the RP of the Corporate Debtor.

The Applicant has sought following reliefs:

a. This Hon’ble Tribunal be pleased to quash and set aside the rejection of the secured financial claim of the Applicant by the Respondent vide his emai!dated13" March 2024 which is annexed as Exhibit F hereinabove.;

b. This Hon’ble Tribunal be pleased to direct the Respondent to forthwith admit the secured financial claim filed by the Applicant as a secured financial creditor under Form C on 16^th February 2024 which is annexed as Exhibit D hereinabove;

c. This Hon’ble Tribunal be pleased to direct the stay of the CIRP proceedings against the Corporate Debtor pending the hearing and final disposal of this present application;

d. Interim and ad-interim reliefs in terms of prayer clause (a), (b) & (c) hereinabove;

2. The Applicant is stated to have filed its claim in Form C on 15^th February 2024 with the Respondent with all the relevant documents and annexures. The Respondent vide his email dated 26" February 2024 rejected the said claim stating that “We note that you have submitted the claim in ‘Form C’, which is the prescribed format for submission of claims by financial creditors. However, we understand from the agreement executed between ASL Sales and Corporate Debtor dated January 02, 2017 (“Agreement”) that the underlying transaction is in respect to the appointment of ASL Sales as the market organizer and for provision of its services to the Corporate Debtor including marketing and distribution of cement manufactured by the Corporate Debtor as mentioned in the Clause 1, Clause 8 and Clause 9 of the Agreement. Therefore, any amount outstanding to you in respect to the Agreement falls within the ambit of operational debt as per Section 5(21) of the IBC.”

3. The Applicant is stated to be engaged in the business of providing logistics and marketing services, while the Corporate Debtor is engaged in manufacture of Cement. Being aggrieved by the decision of the Resolution Professional, the Applicant has filed this Applicant seeking admission of its claim as Financial Debt.

4. The Corporate Debtor, Vadraj Cement Limited was admitted into Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (“CIRP”) vide order dated 2.2.2024 passed by this Tribunal and the Respondent was appointed as an Interim Resolution Professional(“IRP”) for the Corporate Debtor. Later on, the Respondent was confirmed as a Resolution Professional (“RP”) for the Corporate Debtor by the Committee of Creditors on 7^th March2024.

Applicant’s case

5. It is case of the Applicant that, the Applicant is a financial creditor as well as an operational creditor of the Corporate Debtor with respect to the Agreement dated 2^nd January2017(“said Agreement”) entered by the Applicant and the Corporate Debtor subject to which the Corporate Debtor had engaged the Applicant as a marketing organizer for marketing and distribution of cement manufactured by the Corporate Debtor. The said Agreement remained in force between the Applicant and the Corporate Debtor from 16^th January 2017 till 31^st March 2018.

6. For the operational debt of Rs.49,53,338.22/-(Rupees Fourty Nine Lakhs Fifty Three Thousand Three Hundred and Thirty- Eight and Twenty Two Paisa only) in relation to the said Agreement, the Applicant as an Operational Creditor of the Corporate Debtor filed a separate Form B dated15" February 2024 with the Respondent along with its annexures and there is no dispute in this relation.

7. Further, the Applicant claimed a sum of Rs. 9,98,65,318 (Rupees Nine Crores Nine Eight Lakhs Sixty Five Thousand Three Hundred and Eighteen only) as on 1^st February, 2024 as Secured Financial Debt in Form C filed with the Respondent (after deducting a sum of Rs. 10,00,000/- towards interes