Division Bench of the Orissa High Court comprising of the Chief Justice Dr. S. Muralidhar and Justice A. K. Mohapatra was recently hearing a case on corporate insolvency, held that "after the approval of the resolution plan, no surprise claims should be flung on the successful resolution applicant."
It may be noted here that there was a second amendment to the writ petition by I.A. No.8896 of 2021 filed by the Petitioner which was allowed by this Court on 7th July, 2021. By way of the said Amendment, the prayer in this petition had been limited to Petitioner’s seeking either refund or adjustment of the amount paid by it in excess.
In Committee of Creditors of Essar Steel India Limited v. Satish Kumar Gupta, REED 2019 SC 11505, the Supreme Court of India held that under Section 31(1) of the IBC, once the CoC approves the resolution plan, it binds all the stakeholders.
The legal position in this regard was well settled. As pointed out in Ghanashyam Mishra, REED 2021 SC 04534 “after the approval of the resolution plan, no surprise claims should be flung on the successful resolution applicant”.
The Bench further noted, that the resolution Applicant “should start with a fresh slate on the basis of the resolution plan approved”.
Since all of the impugned demands raised against the Petitioner pertaining to the period prior to the Plan Effective date i.e. 31st January, 2020, all such demands stand automatically extinguished in terms of the Approved Resolution Plan.
The impugned demand raised against the Petitioner by the Opposite Parties on the strength of the decision of the Supreme Court in Common Cause, (2017) 9 SCC 499 were unsustainable in law and were hereby set aside. Consequently, a direction was issued to the Opposite Parties to refund the amounts paid by the Petitioner under protest for the purpose of issuance of the MDCC and renewal of the trading licence.
Comments