2020 (9) TMI 339

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....nt along with other consortium of banks extended Term Loans and a Working Capital Loan pursuant to Term Loan Facility Agreements, viz. First Facility Agreement dated 01.02.2010, Second Facility Agreement dated 07.08.2015, Third Facility Agreement dated 14.04.2016, and Fourth Facility Agreement dated 21.07.2017, and one working Capital Consortium Agreement dated 15.04.2016. Through such Facility Agreements, loans aggregating to Rs. 355,05,00,000/- were extended to the Corporate Debtor in order to part-finance the cost for setting up 540 MW (2x270 MW) coal-fired thermal power plant. 4.2 The respondent/Corporate Debtor undertook not to dispose of any of its assets or part thereof under such Facility Agreements. Further, the Corporate Debtor executed Unattested Deed of Hypothecation dated 21.07.2017 in favour of IDBI Trusteeship Services Limited (the Security Trustee), by which Corporate Debtor granted a first ranking charge on the Corporate Debtor's plant, machinery, etc. 4.3 It is averred in paras 3 and 4 of the application that repayment by the Corporate Debtor has always been fraught with defaults. The Repayment Schedule of the Facility Agreements requires the Corporate D....

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....rgent hearing. It was noted in the said letter that the Hon'ble Acting President, NCLT has ordered vide Notice dated 17.04.2020 that all important and urgent matter will be taken up by specifically notified Benches through videoconferencing following specified procedure with effect from 21.04.2020. 4.8 It is submitted by the applicant that delay in hearing and disposal of the main petition led to significant losses for the creditors and therefore, the petition may be taken up for urgent hearing through videoconference at the earliest. 5. COUNTER FILED BY THE RESPONDENT/CORPORATE DEBTOR. 5.1 The respondent vehemently objected to hearing of this IA for urgent hearing of the main petition. He averred that the applicant-Bank has suppressed various material facts and omitted to file various crucial documents, such as Facility Agreement dated 30.04.2017, Debenture Trust Deed dated 30.04.2017, Inter-Creditor Agreements dated 30.04.2017 and dated 06.07.2019 and the Minutes of the Meetings of Joint Lenders Forum, etc. He also averred that COVID-19 pandemic had created state-wide apprehension. The counsel for the respondent could not gain access to the document filed by the appl....

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....d to compel the respondent to act as per the wishes of the applicant-Bank. In light of the above submissions the respondent prayed that the Tribunal may be pleased not to take up the Company Petition for urgent hearing and disposal through videoconference as prayed in this IA. 6. REJOINDER FILED BY THE APPLICANT/FINANCIAL CREDITOR 6.1 The applicant vehemently denied the averments made by the respondent/Corporate Debtor in its Counter. The applicant contended that the applicant/Financial Creditor has not suppressed any material facts either deliberately or consciously in order to gain favourable order from this Tribunal. The applicant also submitted that the applicant-Bank has filed all the relevant documents as averred by the respondent, to establish the default committed by the respondent. The applicant-Bank also submitted that the respondent/Corporate Debtor had access to all the voluminous documents submitted by the applicant-Bank much prior to the lockdown imposed in the State of Telangana effective from 25.03.2020, which was much after several hearing dates including 04.02.2020, 10.02.2020, 25.02.2020 and 13.03.2020. The applicant-Bank further contended that the Corporat....

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....Company Petition be allowed and the Company Petition be taken up for hearing on urgent basis in view of the great economic impact on the economy of the country. FINDINGS 7. We have heard Mr. Kiran, learned counsel for applicant/Financial Creditor. Ms. Rubaina Khatoon, learned counsel assisted by Mr. Rusheek Reddy, learned advocate for the respondent/Corporate Debtor through audio. We have perused the record. The applicant/Financial Creditor has filed the Company Petition on 20.12.2019 before this Tribunal and the case was listed for the first time on 23.01.2020. The Tribunal gave a direction to the applicant/Financial Creditor to issue notice to the respondent/Corporate Debtor for appearance and making submissions, if any. The Corporate Debtor has filed IA No. 116 of 2020, which was disposed of on 10.02.2020. Thereafter, the petition was listed on several occasions along with several Interlocutory Applications filed by the Corporate Debtor. Despite the case having been listed on several occasions, the Corporate Debtor has not submitted its Counter. The applicant/Financial Creditor has filed the present application on 11.05.2020 requesting to take up the main petition on urgen....