National Company Law Tribunal, Principal Bench: Bank of Baroda, the Financial Creditor filed an application to trigger the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 against Amrapali Silicon City Pvt. Ltd., the Corporate Debtor. The financial debt was set out in the form of a loan agreement between the debtor and the financial creditor wherein an amount of Rs. 100 crores was sanctioned to the corporate debtor. Amrapali Silicon City Pvt. Ltd. defaulted in paying an outstanding amount of Rs. 56 crore in March, 2016. The question which arose for consideration for the Principal Bench, NCLT was whether the Financial Creditor was able to satisfy the requirement of Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to initiate a Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process lawfully showing the presence of a default.
Amrapali Silicon City told the Bench said that Bank of Baroda, which is the lead bank of the consortium of lenders, could not individually enforce any right or obligation of the term loan agreement. It contended that the insolvency application even otherwise was incomplete and the same was liable to be rejected. But the Bench dismissed the opposition arguing that the “Explanation to Section 7 (1) clarifies that for the purposes of Section 7, a default includes a default in respect of financial debt, owed not only to the applicant-financial creditor but to any other financial creditor of the Corporate Debt. Moreover, no other financial creditor has come to the forefront to oppose the application”.
The Principal Bench of NCLT, headed by Chief Justice M.M. Kumar, admitted the plea by Bank of Baroda against Amrapali Silicon City Pvt. Ltd. and stated that it would appoint an Interim Resolution Professional who will invite claims from creditors to the company and prepare a resolution plan within the time-frame stipulated under the IBC, 2016. [Bank of Baroda v. Amrapali Silicon City Pvt. Ltd., 2017 SCC OnLine NCLT 814, decided on 4.9.2017]