IN THE NATIONAL COMPANY LAW TRIBUNAL

KOLKATA BENCH (Court-I)

KOLKATA

I.A. No. 1994/KB/2023

In

CP(IB) No. 149/KB/2019

An Application under section 60(5) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 read with Rule

11 of the National Company Law Tribunal Rules, 2016

In the matter of:

Indian Bank …..Financial Creditor

-versus-

City Mall DevelopersPvt. Ltd. ……Corporate Debtor

And

In the matter of

PRA India Private Limited ……. Applicant

-versus-

1. Kannan Tiruvengadum[Resolution Professional]

2. Indian Bank

3. GSRTradefin Private Limited

4. Gopal Sponge And Power Private Limited

….. Respondents

Date of pronouncing the order: 30.04.2024

Coram:

Rohit Kapoor : Member (Judicial)

Balraj Joshi : Member (Technical)

Appearances (via video conferencing/ physical):

Mr. Santosh Kumar Ray, Adv. ] For Indian bank

Ms. Rituparna Sanyal ,Adv. ] Ms. Swastika Sengupta, Adv. ]

Mr.Abhrajit Mitra,Sr.Adv. ]Forthe Applicant in I.A. 1994/KB/2023 Mr. Rachit Lakhmani, Adv. ] Mr. Siddhanth Makkar, Adv. ]

Mr.Mainak Bose, Adv. ] For the Resolution Professional Ms.A.Rao,Adv. ]

Mr.ShaunakMitra,Adv. ] For GSRTradefinPvt. Ltd.

Ms. Sutapa Mitra, Adv. ]

ORDER

Balraj Joshi, Member (Technical)

1. This Court convened through hybrid mode.

2. The interlocutory application being I.A. No. 1994/KB/2023 has been filed by the Applicant undersection 60(5)of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) seeking the following reliefs:

a) The Resolution Professional and COC of the Corporate Debtor be directed to accept the submission of resolution plan from the Applicant and duly consider, examine and act upon the same in accordance with law;

b) The Respondents be restrained from giving any effect or further effect to and/or acting upon the resolution plan submitted by the Respondent no. 4.;

c) Pass such other and/or further order and/or grant such other and/or further reliefs as deem fit and proper by this Adjudicating Authority.

Brief Facts:

3. The Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process ("CIRP") was initiated against the Corporate Debtor, vide Order dated 08.03.2022 passed by the Adjudicating Authority. Mr. Sajjan Kumar Dokania was appointed as Interim Resolution Professional (IRP)vide the said Order and subsequently, the Respondent herein was appointed as the Resolution Professional (RP).

4. Subsequent to the appointment of the Respondent as RP, invitation for Expression of Interest (EOI) in Form G was published on 12.07.2022 in the newspapers being Business Standard (English), Aajkal (Bengali) and Navabharat (Hindi)(Chhattisgarh). Further, the Form G was also put up on the Corporate Debtor’s website and intimation was also sent to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). The last date for submission of EOI was 27.07.2022.

5. In response to the same, four Prospective Resolution Applicants submitted EOI.

Subsequently, a final list of eligible resolution applicants was communicated to the CoC on 21.08.2022.

7.1 Thereafter, in the 9^th CoC Meeting held on 01.11.2022, it was decided that the resolution plan submitted by Gopal Sponge be put up for voting. The voting was concluded on 18.11.2022 and the resolution plan was passed by 77.53% and the Indian Bank abstained from voting. As such the CoC has already approved the Resolution Plan submitted by Respondent No. 4 w.e.f. 18.11.2022. Further,I.A (IBC) 1524/KB/2022 has filed with the Adjudicating Authority for the approval of the resolution plan which is pending adjudication.

Submission of the Applicant:

6. The case of the Applicant herein is that it had requested the RP vide letter, 1Annexure “A” dated 14^th November 2023 to allow for the submission of its resolution plan to take over the Corporate Debtor as a going concern. In reply the RP had refused to cooperate with the Applicant vide email, 2Annexure “B” dated 22^nd November 2023.

7. According to the Applicant, the Form G was not published in any newspaper in circulation in Raipur Region wherein most of the operations of the Corporate Debtor have been carried out. As such, Regulation 36A of IBBI (Resolution Proce