National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT): A two-member bench comprising of Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya, Chairperson and Bansi Lal Bhat, Member (Judicial) allowed an appeal filed challenging the proceedings initiated under Section 9 Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.
The appellant preferred the present appeal against the proceedings initiated by the National Company Law Tribunal, New Delhi by admitting an application under Section 9 filed by the respondent. Vide the order impugned, the NCLT admitted the said application, passed the order of moratorium, and appointed the Interim Resolution Professional. The appellant, Corporate Debtor, challenged the order on the ground that no demand notice was served on the Corporate Debtor in terms of Section 8(1) of the Code.
The Appellate Tribunal found that the a demand notice had been served but on the old address of the appellant. The registered office of the appellant was shifted from Delhi to Noida; and further, the Noida office was also sealed by a civil court of competent jurisdiction. It was noted that the demand notice was issued in a wrong address. Further, the Operational Creditor had notice of the changed address at Noida, but no demand notice was issued to that address. Finding that no notice was served on the appellant in terms of Section 8(1), the Appellate Tribunal set aside the order impugned passed by NCLT. In effect, the process initiated vide the order impugned was held illegal and set aside. The application filed by the Operational Creditor under Section 9 was dismissed with a liberty to issue fresh demand notice under Section 8(1). The appeal was allowed in the above terms. [Sharad Kesarwani v. Planetcast Media Services Ltd., 2018 SCC OnLine NCLAT 385, dated 07-08-2018]
