TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (10) TMI 382
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....und that the Corporate Debtor committed a breach by making default in repaying of the amount of term loan agreement entered into both the parties. 2. The Financial Creditor is a non-banking financial corporation. It is a company incorporated on 03/06/2004 under the provisions of Companies Act, 1956 bearing CIN U74140MH2004PTC146715 whereas the Corporate Debtor is a company incorporated on 26/04/1945 bearing CIN L21010MH1945PLC010337 having Nominal Share Capital of Rs. 400,00,00,000/- and Paid-Up Share Capital of Rs. 258,69,11,512/-. 3. The counsel appearing on behalf of the Financial Creditor submitted that the Corporate Debtor had availed a Term Loan for Rs. 50,00,00,000/- at a rate of 1.5% above base rate of 11.75% p.a. from State Bank of Travancore. It was further mentioned that the loan amount was sanctioned by the State Bank of Travancore which was later merged into the State Bank of India who actually disbursed the said loan amount. This amount was then assigned to the Financial Creditor vide an Assignment Agreement dated 17/12/2018 entered into between the State Bank of India and the Financial Creditor. 4. The Counsel for the Financial Creditor in his arguments reli....
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....s made pursuant to this notice. The amount to be in default according to the Financial Creditor including interest amounts to Rs. 68,10,47,170/- as on 15/06/2019. 9. The Financial Creditor has annexed the following documents in support of the contentions made by them: i. Copy of the Assignment Agreement entered into between the State Bank of India with the Financial Creditor dated 17/12/2018 ii. Copy of letters issued by the State Bank of India to the Financial Creditor dated 04/04/2019 and 09/04/2019 iii. Copy of letter issued by the State Bank of India to the Corporate Debtor dated 09/04/2019 iv. Copy of letter issued by the Financial Creditor to the Corporate Debtor dated 27/06/2019 10. On the other hand, the Corporate Debtor has denied all the contentions, submissions, allegations, contentions made by the Financial Creditor and mentioned that the present petition is a gross abuse of the process of law being a mala fide attempt to allegedly claim amounts which are not due and payable in law and in fact. 11. The Corporate Debtor has raised four main issues for proving that this petition deserves to be dismissed or rejected. The very first conte....
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....ird main contention raised by the Corporate Debtor is that the present petition has been filed by the Financial Creditor to take over the Corporate Debtor company which is legally impermissible and against the object and intent of the IBC. It was submitted that the Financial Creditor is a shareholder and member of the Corporate Debtor. Vide its letter dated 11/04/2018 addressed to the ICICI Bank Limited, the Financial Creditor offered proposals for buying out the secured and unsecured loans of the Corporate Debtor. These offers are said to be under consideration and in the Joint Lenders Meeting held on 23/07/2018, ICICI Bank informed the lenders that they have initiated the process of assignment of their debts and the other lenders confirmed that they will also run the process of assignment. Therefore, this petition is filed for the purposes other than resolution of the Corporate Debtor. 14. The next and the final contention made by the Corporate Debtor deals with the technical aspects of this petition and it was stated that the Form I filed in this petition is incomplete as the date from which the debt fell due and the date when the Corporate Debtor defaulted are not mentioned ....
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....n on their part. Also, during assignment of the loan by State Bank of India to the Financial Creditor, there has been an acknowledgement by the Corporate Debtor vide their letter dated 18/11/2016. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that any problem regarding the issue of limitation does not arise as the petition was filed on 9/08/2019 and thus, is well in time i.e. before the completion of three years. ii. The second contention raised by the Corporate Debtor that no amount is due and payable by the Corporate Debtor to the Financial Creditor also does not survive because the Annual Report of the Corporate Debtor for the year ended on 31/03/2019 itself acknowledge the outstanding loan payable to the Financial Creditor. Also, it is to be noted that at the time of assignment of the matter to the Financial Creditor, the loan account of the Corporate Debtor in the books of the assignor was a Non-Performing Asset (NPA). There is no doubt that the Adjudicating Authority needs to satisfy itself that the default has occurred before admitting an application under Section 7 of the IBC, 2016. Therefore, after perusing the documents, it has become crystal clear that the Corporate Debtor is....
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....Authority was required to give an opportunity to the Appellant to rectify the defect." Moreover, the Counsel for the Financial Creditor has in their rejoinder clarified the dates of default which are also reflected in the Balance Sheet of the Corporate Debtor and basing on this it can be concluded that there is default on the part of the Corporate Debtor. Thus, the present argument of the Corporate Debtor is not sustainable. Also, it was stated that the petition is to be dismissed for the reason that the petitioner failed to submit information from Information Utility. But we are of the opinion that while dealing with these objections this Bench finds no cogent reason/ground for rejecting this petition on such minor technical issues particularly when the existence of debt and default is established. 18. There was also a Demand Notice dated 17/06/2019 sent by the Financial Creditor to the Corporate Debtor demanding the outstanding amount along with interest amounting to Rs. 68,10,47,170/- there was neither any reply to this notice nor was any payment made by the Corporate Debtor. Also, it is to be noted that this petition fulfils all the requisite conditions to admit a peti....