Confirmed tax-recovery sale becomes absolute on payment and confirmation; later sale certificate does not affect title or moratorium.

Under the tax-recovery sale scheme applied through the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act, 1993 and the Second Schedule to the Income-tax Act, a sale becomes absolute once the full purchase price is paid, the Tax Recovery Officer confirms the sale, and no challenge to set aside the sale remains pending. On that basis, the auction sale confirmed on 20.11.2023 had already vested title in the purchaser before CIRP commenced on 01.01.2024. The later issuance of the sale certificate was only a ministerial act recording an already completed sale and did not attract Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 or undo the purchaser's title.

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Issues: Whether the confirmation of sale on 20.11.2023, before commencement of CIRP on 01.01.2024, had already made the auction sale absolute so that the subsequent issuance of sale certificate did not attract the moratorium under Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Analysis: The sale proceedings were conducted under the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act, 1993 by applying the Second Schedule to the Income-tax Act, 1961. Under Rule 63 of the Second Schedule, once the full purchase money is paid and no application to set aside the sale survives, the Tax Recovery Officer confirms the sale and the sale becomes absolute. Rule 65 shows that the sale certificate is issued only after the sale has become absolute and merely records the date on which that event occurred. The confirmation order dated 20.11.2023 expressly recorded that the auction purchaser had deposited the full amount and that no application was pending to set aside the sale. The later issuance of the sale certificate on 14.03.2024, after an interim order had kept the certificate in abeyance, did not postpone the legal effect of the confirmed sale. The scheme relied upon in Indian Overseas Bank v. RCM Infrastructure Ltd. was distinguished because the present matter turned on the statutory scheme governing tax-recovery sales, not on the SARFAESI framework.

Conclusion: The sale had already become absolute on 20.11.2023, before CIRP commenced, and Section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 did not invalidate the completed sale or the purchaser's title.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory sale becomes absolute upon confirmation and compliance with the prescribed payment conditions, a subsequent ministerial issuance of the sale certificate does not affect title or revive the moratorium against the completed sale.

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