Registered mortgage rights survive liquidation where non-registration of charge does not extinguish secured creditor status.

A pre-existing registered mortgage creating an interest in immovable property remains enforceable in liquidation, and the secured creditor's status is not lost merely because the charge was not registered with the Registrar of Companies. The Tribunal stated that later CERSAI registration could not retrospectively defeat earlier mortgage rights, and that liquidation regulations could not dilute a validly created security interest. On that basis, the liquidator's treatment of the lender as an unsecured financial creditor was held unsustainable, and the lender's right to be recognised as a secured creditor and to realise its security in accordance with law was protected.

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Issues: Whether the appellant bank, on the strength of a registered mortgage, could be treated as a secured creditor in liquidation notwithstanding non-registration of charge under the Companies Act and non-compliance with the liquidator's proof requirements, and whether the liquidator could deny the bank's right to enforce security and proceed under the SARFAESI framework.

Analysis: The dispute turned on the interaction between the mortgage rights created under the Transfer of Property Act and the liquidation regime under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. The Tribunal held that a mortgage is a transfer of an interest in immovable property and that the secured creditor's right to enforce such interest is not lost merely because the charge was not registered with the Registrar of Companies. It further held that the appellant's mortgage, having been created and registered earlier, could not be diluted by Regulation 21 of the IBBI (Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2016, and that CERSAI registration introduced later could not be used retrospectively to defeat pre-existing rights. The Tribunal found that the liquidator's treatment of the appellant as an unsecured financial creditor was unsustainable, and that the appellant was entitled to be recognised as a secured creditor with the corresponding right to realise its security in accordance with law.

Conclusion: The appellant's mortgage-backed claim could not be downgraded to an unsecured claim merely for want of ROC registration, and the appellant was entitled to be treated as a secured creditor.

Final Conclusion: The order classifying the appellant as an unsecured financial creditor was set aside, and the appellant's secured status and right to enforce the mortgage were protected in liquidation.

Ratio Decidendi: A pre-existing registered mortgage creating an interest in immovable property remains enforceable in liquidation unless lawfully displaced, and non-registration of charge under the Companies Act by itself does not extinguish secured creditor status or the right to realise security.

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