9911796707
TMI Blog2024 (12) TMI 1033X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Resolution Process (CIRP) against the Corporate Debtor- Ricoh India Ltd. commenced by order dated 14.05.2018. Public announcement was made by the IRP on 28.05.2018. Appellant filed a claim in Form F for an amount of Rs.510,636,046/- as liabilities arising out of CST, VAT and Sales Tax. The CoC confirmed the appointment of IRP as Resolution Professional on 17.06.2018. Apart from Appellant, other stakeholders including Financial Creditors, Operational Creditors, Workmen and employees filed their claims. The claims filed by all stakeholders including the Appellant were taken note of by Resolution Professional and updated list of creditors of Ricoh as on 24.08.2018 was published by Resolution Professional in which claim of Rs.510,636,046/- was reflected of the Appellant which claim was stated to be under verification. The RP issued three more list of creditors on 29.11.2018, 10.12.2018 and 24.01.2019. The claim of the Appellant was noticed in all the list of creditors and claim was not admitted by the RP noticing that the claims are under dispute which are pending before various authorities and/or under Appeal. In the CIRP of the Corporate Debtor in pursuance of Form G issued by the Re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... es and the claim of the Appellant of the full amount which was submitted i.e. Rs.510,636,046/- is reflected in the list of creditors published. The list of creditors further mentions that the claim of the Appellant was not admitted on account of dispute/ Appeals pending. Appellant did not take any steps to challenge the non-admission of the claim. Resolution Professional having not admitted the claim of Appellant and other statutory claims, Resolution Plan was prepared by the SRA treating the statutory claims as 'nil'. Appellant have not taken any steps with regard to non-admission of the claim. It is not open for the Appellant to challenge the approval of the Resolution Plan. Resolution Plan was incompliance of provisions of Section 30(2) and has been approved. It is submitted that the Resolution Plan of Respondent Nos.2 and 3 approved by the Adjudicating Authority on 28.11.2019 was challenged upto the Hon'ble Supreme Court and Hon'ble Supreme Court vide its judgment in "Kalpraj Dharamshi & Anr. vs. Kotak Investment Advisors Limited- Civil Appeal No. 2943-2944 of 2020" decided on 10.03.2021 upheld the approval of the Resolution Plan. Appellant cannot be allowed to challenge the sa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y Pvt. Ltd., has not been admitted due to the following reasons a. Documentation proving the claim are inadequate and not satisfactory b. Corporate debtor has already paid an amount much more than the value of the said equipment, for which claim has been filed c. The equipment referred to in the rental agreements are physically untraceable 4. The claims pertaining to these authorities are under disputes which are pending before various authorities and/or under appeal. The liability is subject to the outcome of these proceedings." 8. The updated list of creditors dated 24.08.2018, 29.11.2018, 10.12.2018 has also been brought on record along with the additional documents filed by Respondent Nos.2 and 3. The updated list of creditors as on 24.08.2018 has been filed as Annexure R3 to IA No.764 of 2021 in which in Annexure D, list of claims of the creditors has been reflected. It is useful to extract following part of the said list, which is as follows:- "Annexure D- List of Claims by creditors other than financial creditors and operational creditors Ref No. Name of Creditor Claims Submitted Claims Admitted Claims under verification Claims Rejected Remarks C001 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... under disputes which are pending before various authorities and/or under appeal. The liability is subject to the outcome of these proceedings." 10. The aforesaid indicate that in the list of creditors which was updated by the Resolution Professional, the claim of the Appellant was although noticed but was not admitted. The Resolution Plan was submitted by the SRA on 12.02.2019, the Adjudicating Authority in the impugned order dated 28.11.2019 has captured the entire resolution plan in paragraph 33 of the order. In the Resolution Plan under paragraph 3.5 under the heading 'treatment of statutory authorities' claim of the Appellant has been noticed. It is useful to extract paragraph 3.5 of the plan which is as follows:- "3.5 Treatment of Statutory Authorities Definition Name of the Creditor Submitted amount in INR "Unadmitted Statutory Creditors" Deputy Commissioner, Sales Tax Maharashtra 3,47,33,90,103 Commercial Tax Officer, Bhopal 1,22,12,857 State Tax Officer, Gandhinagar 51,06,36,046 Total 3,99,62,39,006 We understand that the admitted claim amount for statutory dues admitted is NIL. The Resolution Applicant proposes to pay NIL to Statutory ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat the list of creditors was not available for inspection and it was not displayed on the website. The list of creditors which has been filed by the Respondent clearly indicate that it was placed on the website. The Resolution Professional in its reply filed in this appeal has pleaded that the list of creditors was displayed on the website and was updated periodically. In paragraph 5.4 of the reply, following has been stated :- "5.4. That pursuant to the public announcement, claims of various financial creditors, operational creditors and other creditors of the Corporate Debtor were received, which were collated and verified by the IRP/RP in terms of the Code and the CIRP Regulations. Further, as per Regulation 13 of the CIRP Regulations, a list of creditors of the Corporate Debtor was prepared and filed with the Hon'ble Adjudicating Authority. The list of creditors of the Corporate Debtor was also displayed on the website and was updated periodically. Copy of list of creditors of the Corporate Debtor (as on 24 January 2019) is annexed herewith and marked as Annexure R-4." 14. From the facts indicated above, it is clear that the list of creditors mentioned the claim of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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