NCLT-approved resolution plan bars pre-closing-date claims, while tribunal declines final ruling on departmental recovery after insolvency.

An NCLT-approved resolution plan provided that pre-closing-date claims of operational creditors and governmental authorities stood discharged, settled, extinguished or abated, with no amount payable toward such claims, so the departmental demand was prima facie unrecoverable against the assessee. The tribunal also held that, absent an express enabling provision in the customs and central excise framework, it could not finally determine the effect of the insolvency proceedings on recovery of the adjudged dues, leaving that question to the department in the first instance. In light of the resolution order and the department's stated position, the appeals were treated as no longer requiring adjudication and disposed of as infructuous.

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Issues: (i) Whether the departmental demand could be recovered in view of the NCLT-approved resolution plan; (ii) whether the tribunal could finally determine the effect of the insolvency proceedings on recovery of the adjudged dues.

Issue (i): Whether the departmental demand could be recovered in view of the NCLT-approved resolution plan.

Analysis: The resolution plan recorded that claims of operational creditors and governmental authorities relating to the period prior to the closing date stood discharged, settled, extinguished, or abated, and that no amount was payable toward such pre-closing-date claims. The order also noticed the principle that pre-existing dues covered by the approved plan prima facie stand barred from recovery, though the tribunal did not finally adjudicate recoverability on merits.

Conclusion: The demand prima facie could not be recovered against the assessee in view of the approved resolution plan.

Issue (ii): Whether the tribunal could finally determine the effect of the insolvency proceedings on recovery of the adjudged dues.

Analysis: The order held that, in the absence of an explicit enabling provision in the customs and central excise framework, the tribunal was not competent to finally decide whether the dues were recoverable after the NCLT order. That question was left to the department to consider in the first instance.

Conclusion: The tribunal declined to finally adjudicate the recovery issue.

Final Conclusion: In light of the insolvency resolution order and the department's stated position, the appeals were treated as no longer requiring adjudication and were disposed of as infructuous.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an approved resolution plan extinguishes pre-closing-date claims, the tribunal may decline to finally determine departmental recovery and dispose of the matter as infructuous.

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