Mandatory ten-day demand notice under insolvency law must expire before a Section 9 application; premature filing is invalid.

An application by an operational creditor under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was held maintainable only after expiry of the mandatory ten-day period following service of the demand notice under Section 8(1), and only if payment was not made or no notice of dispute was received. Because the Section 9 application was filed on the same date as the demand notice, it was premature and could not be entertained. The transfer of a pending winding-up petition under the Companies (Transfer of Pending Proceedings) Rules, 2016 did not cure this defect. The insolvency admission order was therefore unsustainable, the transferred proceeding abated, and a fresh application remained open after statutory compliance.

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Issues: Whether an application under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 was maintainable when the demand notice under Section 8(1) had been issued on the same date as the filing of the application, and whether the resulting insolvency order and transferred winding-up proceeding could survive.

Analysis: Section 9 permits an operational creditor to move the Adjudicating Authority only after expiry of ten days from delivery of the demand notice under Section 8(1), and only if payment is not made or a notice of dispute is not received. The statutory waiting period is a condition precedent to filing and entertaining the application. Since the application was filed before completion of the ten-day period, it was not maintainable on the date of filing. The transfer of the winding-up petition under Rule 5 of the Companies (Transfer of Pending Proceedings) Rules, 2016 could not validate an application that was premature under the Code.

Conclusion: The insolvency admission order was unsustainable and was set aside. The transferred proceeding was held to have abated, and the operational creditor was left free to file a fresh application after compliance with Section 8(1).

Final Conclusion: Premature invocation of the corporate insolvency mechanism renders the admission order invalid, and the proceedings abate, though a fresh application remains open after proper statutory notice and expiry of the prescribed period.

Ratio Decidendi: An application under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 cannot be entertained unless it is filed after expiry of the mandatory ten-day period following service of the demand notice under Section 8(1).

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