Arunkant Rai v. Allahabad Bank & Anr

• Bench: Justice A.I.S. Cheema, Kanthi Narahari, Anant Bijay Singh
• Appellant: Arunkant Ravi
• Respondent: Allahabad Bank & Anr.
• Citation: Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 1251 of 2019

Issue

Is there a bar in law for the Bank which has declared 'NPA' to proceed and file proceedings under Section 7 of the 'I&B Code, 2016'?

Facts

The appellant filed this appeal against the impugned order dated 27th August 2019 passed in CP 1003 (IB) / MB / 2019 by the Adjudicating Authority, National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench.

The Adjudicating Authority admitted the application under Section 7 of the 'Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016' filed by the Respondent No. 1 Allahabad Bank and 'Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process' (CIRP) was initiated.

The present Appeal has been filed raising grievances that the Allahabad Bank was part of Consortium in which the leading Bank was IDBI and Allahabad Bank.

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Appellant's Contentions

It was submitted that as per the documents entered into by the Allahabad Bank and IDBI if Allahabad Bank wanted to take action, it would require permission to be taken from IDBI bank 15 days before taking such an action.

It is stated that it was necessary that Respondent No. 1 Allahabad Bank should have given notice and only thereafter it could have filed the application under Section 7 of the 'I&B Code, 2016'.

Respondent's Contentions

The counsel here submitted that Allahabad Bank had declared 'NPA' with regard to debt on 30th September 2016 and filed an application under Section 7 of the 'I&B Code, 2016' on 11th March 2019, which it was bound to.

The counsel relied on the Judgment of this Tribunal in the matter of Oriental Bank of Commerce Vs. M/s Ruchi Global Limited in Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 387 of 2019 passed on 31.01.2020.

Judgement

The appeal was dismissed by observing that the decisions made by the Hon'ble Bench of this Tribunal as above were found to be in agreement.