Liquidation asset access rights may be protected when post-insolvency obstruction directly impairs saleability and value realisation.

Section 60(5)(c) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code permits protection of a pre-existing access right when post-insolvency obstruction directly affects liquidation, inspection, saleability and value realisation of estate assets. The notes state that long, open and continuous use of access through adjoining land, supported by recorded permissions and other material, established a prescriptive right of way under the Indian Easements Act. Obstruction after CIRP was treated as prejudicial to liquidation, and measures keeping the route unobstructed were sustained. A dissenting view considered that a contested prescriptive easement requires full civil evidence and should be pursued before a civil court with leave under the Code.

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Issues: (i) Whether the Adjudicating Authority had jurisdiction under Section 60(5)(c) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 to determine and protect access to a liquidation asset; (ii) Whether the Corporate Debtor had a subsisting prescriptive right of way over the appellants' adjoining land and whether its obstruction was connected with the liquidation process.

Issue (i): Whether the Adjudicating Authority had jurisdiction under Section 60(5)(c) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 to determine and protect access to a liquidation asset.

Analysis: Section 60(5)(c) extends to questions of law or fact arising out of or relating to insolvency or liquidation. The disputed obstruction arose after commencement of CIRP and directly affected inspection, saleability and value realisation of land forming part of the liquidation estate. Protection of an existing access right required for liquidation does not amount to creating a fresh civil right or usurping an exclusive statutory forum's jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The application under Section 60(5)(c) was maintainable, in favour of the Liquidator.

Issue (ii): Whether the Corporate Debtor had a subsisting prescriptive right of way over the appellants' adjoining land and whether its obstruction was connected with the liquidation process.

Analysis: The non-agricultural permission of 1999 recorded access from the National Highway through the adjoining blocks. The access was openly and continuously used for approximately two decades without contemporaneous objection, including after the appellants acquired the servient land. The alternate route crossed third-party land and was not a legally secure access. Satellite imagery and the timing of the obstruction supported the finding that the established access was blocked after CIRP in a manner detrimental to value maximisation.

Conclusion: The Corporate Debtor possessed a subsisting right of way under Section 15 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882, and the obstruction was connected with and prejudicial to liquidation, in favour of the Liquidator.

Dissenting Opinion: Justice N. Seshayee considered that a contested prescriptive easement imposes a burden on third-party property and requires proof of a defined route, adverse user as of right, uninterrupted twenty-year enjoyment, and examination of evidence. Such a civil dispute falls outside the Tribunal's summary jurisdiction and must be pursued before a civil court with leave under Section 33(5) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Final Conclusion: The existing access was validly protected as integral to effective realisation of the liquidation estate, and consequential measures to keep it unobstructed were sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 60(5)(c) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 permits protection of a pre-existing access right where post-insolvency obstruction has a direct and proximate nexus with liquidation and asset value realisation.

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