Insolvency threshold under Section 9: unsigned invoice interest cannot be added to admitted debt to cross the minimum default.

Unsigned unilateral invoices could not be relied on to add claimed interest to an admitted principal debt for meeting the minimum default threshold under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Because the principal amount alone remained below the statutory minimum, the insolvency application was not maintainable. The challenge to dismissal therefore failed, and limitation did not require determination once the threshold defect was found.

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Issues: Whether the appellant had crossed the statutory threshold for maintaining an application under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 by adding interest reflected only in unsigned invoices.

Analysis: The admitted principal debt was below the minimum default amount prescribed for invoking the insolvency remedy. The claimed interest was based on entries in invoices that were not signed or otherwise shown to have been accepted by the corporate debtor, and therefore could not be treated as an enforceable component of default for the purpose of crossing the threshold. Since the principal amount alone did not satisfy the statutory minimum, the application itself was not maintainable. In view of this conclusion, the question of limitation was not required to be decided.

Conclusion: The appellant failed to establish that the default crossed the statutory threshold, and the challenge to dismissal of the Section 9 application fails.

Ratio Decidendi: Interest claimed on the basis of an unsigned unilateral invoice cannot be added to the admitted principal debt for satisfying the minimum default threshold under the insolvency code.

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