JUDGMENT :

B.R. GAVAI, J.

1. Leave to file Civil Appeal in Diary No. 24125 of 2020 is granted.

2. All these appeals, assail the judgment and order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as “NCLAT”) dated 5.8.2020, passed in Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) Nos. 344-345 of 2020.

3. By the said judgment and order dated 5.8.2020, NCLAT has allowed the appeals filed by Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (hereinafter referred to as “KIAL”), respondent No.1 herein, aggrieved by two separate orders dated 28.11.2019 passed by National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench (hereinafter referred to as “NCLT” or “Adjudicating Authority”) in M.A. No.1039 of 2019 and M.A. No. 691 of 2019. NCLAT has set aside the said orders passed in the said M.As. M.A. No.1039 of 2019 was filed by KIAL objecting to grant of approval to the resolution plan submitted by Kalpraj Dharamshi and Rekha Jhunjhunwala, a consortium, (hereinafter referred to as “Kalpraj”), which is appellant in Civil Appeal Nos. 2943-2944 of 2020. NCLT has rejected the said M.A. Whereas, M.A. No. 691 of 2019 was filed by the Resolution Professional of Ricoh India Limited (hereinafter referred to as “the Corporate Debtor”) for grant of approval to the Resolution Plan submitted by Kalpraj. NCLT has allowed the said M.A. and approved the resolution plan submitted by Kalpraj.

4. The facts in brief, giving rise to the present appeals are as under:

The Corporate Debtor filed an application on 29.1.2018 before NCLT under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as “I&B Code”) for initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (hereinafter referred to as “CIRP”) of itself vide Company Petition (IB) No. 156/MB/2018. NCLT vide order dated 14.5.2018, admitted the Petition and directed the moratorium to commence as prescribed under Section 14 of the I&B Code and directed certain statutory steps to be taken as a consequence thereof. Vide the said order dated 14.5.2018, NCLT also appointed Mr. Krishna Chamadia as Interim Resolution Professional to carry out the functions as prescribed under the provisions of the I&B Code. The said Mr. Krishna Chamadia was subsequently confirmed as Resolution Professional (hereinafter referred to as ‘RP’) by the Committee of Creditors (hereinafter referred to as “CoC”) on 15.6.2018.

RP vide notification dated 9.7.2018 invited expression of interest (hereinafter referred to as “EOI”) to submit a resolution plan from interested resolution applicants, who fulfilled the minimum conditions stipulated in the said document (EOI). As per the said EOI, if any proposed applicant had any queries or clarifications, it was required to write to RP on or before 31.7.2018. The EOI was required to be submitted via email on the email address of RP or via post at the address mentioned in the said invitation on or before 8.8.2018.

On the said date i.e. 9.7.2018, analogously, the first Form ‘G’ also came to be notified. Vide the said Form ‘G’, the last date prescribed for submission of Resolution Plan was on or before 21.9.2018. The second Form ‘G’ came to be issued on 24.8.2018, which required the Resolution Plans to be submitted on or before 28.9.2018. The third Form ‘G’ came to be issued on 28.9.2018, which required the Resolution Plans to be submitted on or before 25.10.2018. The fourth Form ‘G’ came to be issued on 9.11.2018, which required the Resolution Plans to be submitted on or before 13.12.2018. The fifth and the last Form ‘G’ came to be issued on 11.12.2018, which required the Resolution Plans to be submitted on or before 8.1.2019.

KIAL, the appellant before NCLAT (respondent No.1 herein) and one Karvy Data Management Systems Limited submitted their Resolution Plans on the last date as stipulated in the last and fifth Form ‘G’ i.e. on 8.1.2019.

One another applicant i.e. WeP Solutions Ltd. subm