Individual consortium financial creditor can independently initiate CIRP under Section 7 IBC without others' consent; NPA classification date valid as default; recovery proceedings no bar to admission.

O R D E R

Labh Singh, Member (Judicial)

1. The Bank of India, the Financial Creditor has filed the instant application under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (hereinafter to be referred as “the IBC Code”) read with rule 4 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2016 (for brevity ‘the Rules’) with a prayer to trigger Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process in respect of respondent Company, Pallishree Limited Holding (hereinafter referred as “Corporate Debtor”).

2. It is appropriate to mention that the applicant Bank is a Financial Creditor constituted under the Banking Companies(Acquisition and Transfer of Undertaking) Act, 1970 having its head office at Star House 15.09.2024, C-5, G Block, Bandra Kurla Complex,, Bandra East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400051 and carrying on its Banking business inter-alia from its Kolkata Asset Recovery Branch at Star House, 5 BTM SARANI, Kolkata-700001. The present application has been filed through Sh. Sanjeev Shivdas Bagul, Assistant General Manager forinitiation of insolvency resolution process against the respondent under the IBC Code. A copy of Board Resolution dated 18.07.2019 with Letter Annexture “A” has been placed on record.

3. The Corporate Debtor against whom initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process has been prayed for, was incorporated on 09.04.1948 having its registered office situated at Holding No. 408, O.B Road, Ward No. 6, Pallishree, Arambagh Hooghly-712601. Since the registered office of the respondent Corporate Debtor is situated at Hooghly, this Tribunal having territorial jurisdiction over the State of West Bengal is the Adjudicating Authority in relation to the prayer for initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process(CIRP) in respect of respondent Corporate Debtor under sub-section (1) of Section 60 of the Code.

4. Briefly stated the facts of the case are thatthe Corporate Debtor availed credit facilities from the Financial Creditor, and on 29.05.2021, the Financial Creditor issued a sanction letter for the revised credit facilities. In terms of the said revised sanction letter, the existing term loan of Rs. 0.81 crores was extinguished; the Fund based working capital was renewed at a limit of Rs. 71.33 crores and the non fund based limits were renewed at Rs.0.40 crores, and thus an aggregate sum of Rs. 71.73 crores was granted to the Corporate Debtor.

5. Pursuant to such revised credit facilities being sanctioned and since credit facilities were sanctioned by Punjab National Bankand also, there was a consortium of landers, the Corporate Debtor executed several loan and security documentson 28.01.2022 which includes a Working capital consortium agreement, an Interse Agreement between the Bankers, and a Deed of Hypothecation. Additionally, a Personal Guarantee of Baibhav Kumar Roy dated 28.01.2022, affidavit of Director, Memorandum of Entry and a Letter of Undertaking were executed to secure the credit facilities.

6. Thereafter, the Corporate Debtor started defaulting in the repayment of the credit facilities and accordingly, the Financial Creditor classified the account of the Corporate Debtor as Non-Performing Assets (NPA) on 18.06.2023. The date of default is 18.06.2023. The total amount of debt is Rs.