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TMI Blog2022 (9) TMI 634X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ld Storage Pvt. Ltd. (Appellant in this appeal), whereupon the claim filed by the New Hind Silk House Pvt. Ltd. has been considered admissible in the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Professional (CIRP) of the corporate debtor Goouksheer Farm Fresh Pvt. Ltd. 2. In brief, it is the case of the Appellant that after initiation of CIRP consequent to the order by the Adjudicating Authority in C.P (IB) No. 1582/KB/2019, a Committee of Creditors (CoC) was constituted by the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) with the Appellant as the sole financial creditor in the CoC with 100% voting rights. He has further stated that after the initiation of CIRP on 13.12.2019, the first CoC meeting took place on 8.1.2020, wherein the IRP informed the CoC that the claim of the Appellant as financial creditor was the only claim received upto 26.12.2019 amounting to Rs.65,80,505.00. He has further stated that certain decisions were taken in this CoC meeting relating to fee of Resolution Profession (in short RP), appointment and engagement of "I.P.E Egress Insolvency Professional LLP", estimated CIRP cost alongwith expenses relating to registered valuers and statutory auditor. He has further stated that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the debt dated 1.4.2016 and 1.4.2017 are ostensibly signed by directors of the corporate debtor. He has reproduced the signatures of the directors who were on the board of directors of the corporate debtor from the record of Ministry of Corporate Affairs' website to show that Shrestha Jha, Sandeep Agarwal and Dhruv Agarwal, who were directors on the corporate debtor company on 1.4.2016 (which is the date on which the acknowledgment of debt is given on the Ledger account Statement) have different signatures than the one that appears on the document showing acknowledgment by the corporate debtor of the debt (at page 196 of the appeal paperbook). In a similar manner, the document which is produced to show confirmation of debt as on 1.4.2017 (attached at page 197 of the appeal paperbook) is supposed to be signed by a person and the signature does not match the signature either of Shrestha Jha, Sandeep Agarwal and Dhruv Agarwal as appearing in record uploaded on Ministry of Corporate Affairs website. He has further submitted that Shrestha Jha resigned from the board of directors of corporate debtor on 30.3.2019 and Sandeep Agarwal and Dhruv Agarwal both resigned from the board of dire ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... btor, the said claim is clearly within limitation as the Section 7 petition was filed on 25.9.2019. He has further submitted that the Appellant was the lone member of the CoC at the beginning of CIRP, and it was only after 27.2.2020, when a claim of Rs.1,96,63,603/- of NHSH was admitted that the Appellant felt that his interests were being severely affected and it started raising question that the claim of NHSH was time-barred. 10. The Learned Counsel for R-2 has further submitted that NHSH has submitted ledger account showing balance dues, which confirmed by the corporate debtor on 1.4.2016 and again on 1.4.2017, bank statement of NHSH showing initial payment to the corporate debtor and Form 26AS showing TDS deposited by the corporate debtor in support of its claim. He has further submitted that the RP has verified the claim in accordance with Regulation 14 of CIRP Regulations, 2016 and it was only after complete verification of the said claim that he proceeded to admit it. 11. The Learned Senior Counsel for R-2 has further argued that since inclusion of NHSH's claim severely affected the vote share of the Appellant in the CoC, it started raising frivolous objections regarding a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ith Form C and held that RP has considered and screened all the documents properly as per the provisions of IBC and CIRP Regulations and further the allegations made by the Appellant have not been substantiated. In addition, he has held that the application is also bad for non-joinder of two directors of the corporate debtor, who had signed the confirmations of ledger account. As a result, the IA filed by P.M. Cold Storage Pvt. Ltd. before the Adjudicating Authority was dismissed by the Impugned Order. 15. We also note that the Appellant had filed IA-392/KB/2020 on 13.2.2020, for replacement of the RP and the grounds stated in this Interlocutory Application were relating to high expenses of the RP, appointment of Transaction Auditor and professional fee of other personnel engaged by the RP. He had sent e-mail dated 23.01.2020requesting for an urgent meeting of the CoC and this Interlocutory Application IA-392/KB/2020 was accepted for hearing by the Adjudicating Authority and dismissed vide order dated 26.5.2020. 16. We now look at the veracity or otherwise of documents filed by NHSH alongwith Form C regarding its claim in the light of contentions of the rival parties and on basis ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uaded about the authenticity and veracity of ledger account confirmations and are of the opinion that they cannot be taken as written acknowledgement of the balance debt. 18. We also note that the balance sheets for FY 2016-17, FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 were prepared by the RP through Auditors on 12.3.2020. We note that at the point of initiation of CIRP, only balance sheet for the FY 2015-16 was available. Thus, the inclusion of the debt of NHSH in the balance sheet for FY 2015-16 in the 'Notes to Financial Statement' (attached at pp.125-130 of the appeal paperbook) also does not appear to be reliable as the relevant page 127 of the appeal paperbook does not contain the seal of the Chartered Accountant M.D. Deboo and the company. Thus, we are unable to place reliance of balance sheets for the relevant FY 2016-17, FY 2017-18 and FY 2018-19 regarding acknowledgment of debt. Since they were prepared on 12.3.2020, and contain the admitted claim of NHSH which is in question. Thus, in view of the fact that the last payment by the corporate debtor was made to the financial creditor NHSH on 5.8.2016 and the claim was filed on 26.2.2019. We find that the claim is barred by limitation. 19 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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