Personal guarantor liability can be proved from loan documents alone, without a separate guarantee deed.

A separate guarantee deed is not indispensable where the loan documents and admitted execution otherwise show that an individual signed as guarantor and the transaction records a contract of guarantee. The personal guarantor definition under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code turns on suretyship to a corporate debtor, so the substance of the documents can establish guarantor status and liability. On that basis, the absence of a separately filed guarantee deed does not, by itself, defeat proceedings under Section 95 when the underlying loan agreement identifies the person as guarantor and the surety relationship is otherwise admitted.

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Issues: Whether the proceedings under Section 95 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 were vitiated for want of a separate guarantee deed on record and whether the appellant could still be treated as a personal guarantor to the corporate debtor.

Analysis: The appellant had signed the loan agreement and the guarantee-related document in the capacity of guarantor, and had not disputed the execution of the underlying transaction or his status as surety. The definition of "personal guarantor" under Section 5(22) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 requires an individual to be a surety in a contract of guarantee to a corporate debtor. The absence of a separately filed guarantee deed did not nullify the admitted guarantor relationship, particularly when the loan agreement itself recorded the appellant as guarantor and contained terms establishing the guarantee liability. The Tribunal treated the substance of the transaction as sufficient to establish the appellant's status and liability, and declined to adopt a hyper-technical view.

Conclusion: The initiation of proceedings under Section 95 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 was not vitiated, and the appellant was liable to be proceeded against as a personal guarantor.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the admission of the personal guarantor insolvency proceedings failed, and the appeal was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A separate guarantee deed is not indispensable where the borrower's loan documents, read with the admitted execution and guarantor designation, sufficiently establish the existence of a contract of guarantee and the individual's status as a personal guarantor.

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