The withdrawal of a Company Petition renders the admission order for Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process nonest, negating any further proceedings.

ORDER

IA 4920/2023:-

The present IA has been preferred by the Applicant Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited for levy of a penalty under Section 65 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 against the Respondent for initiating fraudulent CIRP proceedings against the Corporate Debtor i.e., Epitome Residency Private Limited and also for recall of the order dated 12.06.2023 vide which the Corporate Debtor was admitted to CIRP.

The case of the Applicant is that the Respondent JLL Building Operations Private Limited i.e., the Operational Creditor in the Company Petition filed a Petition under Section 9 of the Code against the Corporate Debtor i.e., Epitome Residency Private Limited. Vide order dated 12.06.2023 the Respondent Corporate Debtor was admitted to CIRP and the Hon’ble Tribunal was pleased to appoint Mr. Ashok Barbole as the IRP. In compliance with the provisions of the Code the IRP issued a public notice dated 18.06.2023 calling upon the creditors of the Corporate Debtor to submit their claims with requisite documents on or before 29.06.2023. The case of the Applicant is that pursuant to the public announcement applicant filed its claim with the IRP on 13.07.2023 for an amount of Rs. 68,70,34,055/-. It is further submitted that in addition to the applicant Indiabulls Commercial Credit Limited also filed its claim for an amount of Rs. 74,80,43,6383/-. Both the claims of the applicant and IICL were duly admitted by the IRP. The IRP was pleased to constitute the COC of the Corporate Debtor.

The Hon’ble Tribunal at the time of admission of Corporate Debtor into CIRP was pleased to direct the Operational Creditor i.e., JLL Building Operations Private Limited to deposit an amount of Rs. 2,00,000/- towards the initial CIRP cost. The case of the applicant is that no CIRP cost as directed by the Hon’ble Court was paid by the Operational Creditor. In addition, the whole emphasis of the applicant is that the Petitioner Operational Creditor has failed to file its claim with the IRP. The last date for filing the claims was 29.06.2023. The said fact is recorded by the IRP wherein he has observed that:-

“the operational creditor has not filed its claim before the IRP and not given the money as per the directions of the Hon’ble Court”.

In this background the prayer of the applicant is for initiating proceedings against the operational creditor and also for recall of the admission order dated 12.06.2023.

After appreciating the contentions of the Applicant, the notice of the said application was issued on 25.10.2024. The Respondent was duly served but failed to tender any appearance in the matter and thus vide order dated 06.12.2024 it was recorded was under:-

“Despite service there is no representation on behalf of the Respondent. Let the respondent be proceeded ex-parte. Adjourned to 10.01.2025.”

On 10.01.2025 the matter could not be taken up and the case was posted for 14.02.2025 i.e., today. After having appreciated the contentions of the Applicant wherein the Applicant has been pleased to state that the proceedings initiated by the Operations creditor in the present case were fraudulent and collusive with the only motive to insulate the Corporate Debtor from the Creditors on account of moratorium. It was further stated that the process of IBC has been misused to prejudice the interest of the applicant and to give undue advantage to the Corporate Debtor by initiating malicious proceedings with an ulterior motive.

On perusal of the order file it is pertinent to take note that the present CP was in fact withdrawn on 07.03.2024 the said order was issued in IA 890/2024 which is as under:-

“I.A. 890/2024:- The prayer in this I.A. is as under:

(a) Issue order declaring that M/s. Epitome Residency Private Limited be withdrawn from the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under Section 12A read with Rule 11 of the National Company Law Tribunal Rules, 2016 and be released from all obligations and proceedings related to the insolvency.

(b) Issue necessary o