IN THE NATIONAL COMPANY LAW TRIBUNAL: NEW DELHI PRINCIPAL BENCH ITEM No. 4 (IB)-417(PB)/2023 IN THE MATTER OF:

Capric Contracts Private Limited …. Petitioner/Applicant vs.

GNEX Realtech Private Limited …. Respondent Order U/s. 9 of Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 Order delivered on 11.10.2023 CORAM:

JUSTICE RAMALINGAM SUDHAKAR HON’BLE PRESIDENT SH. AVINASH K. SRIVASTAVA HON’BLE MEMBER (TECHNICAL)

(HEARING THROUGH PHYSICAL MODE & VC)

PRESENT:

For the Petitioner : Appearance not marked For the Respondent : Sr. Adv. Viraj Datar, Adv. Arpit Singh Arora, Adv.

Saurav Joon

ORDER

1. This Section 9 Petition has been filed by the Petitioner i.e. Capric Contracts Private Limited. The cause for filing this petition is a contract which is entered between the Petitioner/Operational Creditor and the Respondent/Corporate Debtor i.e. GNEX Realtech Private Limited which contract was entered into in the year 2018.

2. The OC was awarded 03 Letter of Intents (LOIs) for carrying Public Health Engineering, Road and allied work Project in Haryana. The LOI was given by the Respondent/Corporate Debtor in 03 tranches, the details of which are herein below:

i. “Asha Bahadurgarh” Phase-I bearing no. LOI/GRPL/CA/18-19/01 dated 25.07.2018 for an amount of Rs.6,87,33,665.40/-.

ii. “Asha Bahadurgarh” Phase-II bearing no. LOI/GRPL/CA/18-19/02 dated 25.07.2018 for an amount of Rs.3,57,76,494.05/-

iii. “Asha Bahadurgarh” Phase-III bearing no. LOI/GRPL/CA/18-19/03 dated 25.07.2018 for an amount of Rs.6,42,30,398.55/-

3. The Work Order was amended from time to time due to exigencies of the contract and the nature of contract to be executed. There was also amendment to the Work Order and revision in the cost. The details of which are not very significant for the adjudication of the proceedings.

4. Consequent to the execution of the work, the Operational Creditor raised various invoices from time to time on the Corporate Debtor and in view of the running account, payments were made by the Corporate Debtor on various dates till the work came to a close. It is a case of the Operational Creditor that the work order has been executed in full, whereas the case of the Corporate Debtor is that the Work Order has not been completed and much remains to be done; and therefore, there is an issue of withholding of certain amounts due to non-completion of the project in accordance with the Work Order and the LOI.

5. BE THAT AS IT MAY, the Operational Creditor now claims on the basis of invoices, the Ledger Account of the Operational Creditor which reflects a sum of Rs.1,77,09,067/- (Rupees One Crore Seventy-Seven Lakhs Nine Thousand Sixty-Seven Only) as due and payable by the Corporate Debtor.

6. According to the Corporate Debtor, in December 2019, the Corporate Debtor confirmed and acknowledged this amount. On 07.07.2020, the Corporate Debtor shares an e-mail consisting of Ledger Accounts and bills summary for the abovementioned outstanding amount. It is a case of the Operational Creditor that they have sent several e-mails and reminders from December 2019 to July 2022 requesting the Corporate Debtor to discharge its liability. (Page 247 to 254 of the Paperbook).

7. It is also not disputed that the parties were in touch with each other and even as per the statement of the Operational Creditor, on 18.02.2023 (at Page-264), the Corporate Debtor sent an e-mail to the Operational Creditor consisting of draft settlement deed, which according to the Operational Creditor is a lesser amount. This Settlement Deed was also updated on

02.03.2023. (Page-269)

8. In furtherance to the discussion between the parties, the Operational Creditor sent an e-mail dated 03.03.2023 (Page 275-279), which is signed only by the Operational Creditor and has not been counter signed by the Corporate Debtor. This e-mail with a proposed settlement is of crucial importance. The relevant paragraphs of the settlement signed by the Operational Creditor are at Paragraph 7 and 8 of the draft Settlement Deed dated 03.03.2023