Pre-existing dispute bars section 9 insolvency admission where contemporaneous emails and notices show genuine disagreement before demand notice.

Contemporaneous emails and other communications showing delay in delivery, poor software quality, and non-completion of milestones established a real pre-existing dispute before the demand notice, so the section 9 application under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code could not be admitted. The tribunal also treated the respondent's prior indemnity notice and pre-institution mediation as corroborative of a dispute existing before initiation of insolvency proceedings. A further part of the debt was affected by the section 10A bar. The dismissal of the operational creditor's application was upheld because contemporaneous material is sufficient to bar admission even if the creditor disputes the existence of that dispute.

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Issues: Whether a pre-existing dispute existed between the parties so as to justify dismissal of the application under section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Analysis: The record showed emails and other communications, before issuance of the demand notice, raising concerns about delay in delivery, poor quality of the software code, and non-completion of the agreed milestones. The respondent also issued an indemnity notice before the section 9 proceeding and had initiated pre-institution mediation, which corroborated that the dispute was not a post-notice fabrication. The existence of these contemporaneous materials satisfied the standard for a pre-existing dispute and showed that the section 9 application could not be admitted. The claim relating to part of the debt was also affected by the bar under section 10A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Conclusion: A pre-existing dispute was held to exist, and the dismissal of the section 9 application was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: For admission of an operational creditor's application under section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, contemporaneous material showing a real and pre-existing dispute prior to the demand notice is sufficient to bar admission, even if the dispute is disputed by the creditor or not raised in the contractual mechanism pleaded by the creditor.

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