STATE TAX OFFICER VS RICOH INDIA LTD : CASE SUMMARY

The NCLAT in State Tax Officer Vs Ricoh India Ltd  Company Appeal (AT) Insolvency No 248 of 2020 held that Appellant having not taken any steps for agitating its claim before the Adjudicating Authority at the relevant time, it is not open for the Appellant to raise any grievance for non-allocation of any amount in the Resolution Plan.

FACTS OF THE CASE

CIRP was initiated in the matter of Ricoh India Ltd vide order dated 14.05.2018. Appellant filed claim for an amount of Rs. 510,636,046/- as liabilities arising out of CST, VAT and Sales Tax. The claim of the Appellant was not admitted by the Resolution Professional noticing that the claims are under dispute which are pending before various authorities. During CIRP, Resolution Plan was approved by CoC on 13.02.2019 in 15^th CoC with 84.36% majority, wherein there was no allocation of any amount against the claim of the Appellant.   Subsequently, Resolution Plan was also  approved by the Adjudicating Authority vide order dated 28.11.2019. Aggrieved by the same, the Appellant filed appeal before the NCLAT.

FINDINGS OF THE NCLAT

NCLAT noted that claim of appellant was taken notice of by the Resolution Professional but has not been admitted. The Adjudicating Authority also has noticed the non-admission of the claim of appellant while approving the Resolution Plan. Appellant neither raised any grievance at any point of time regarding non-admission of claim nor claimed to have filed any application before Adjudicating Authority challenging non-admission of claim. Resolution Professional has published four updated list of creditors, where claim of appellant was reflected and  in the list, it was sated that the claim was not admitted. It is not the case of the Appellant that the list of creditors was not available for inspection or  it was not displayed on the website.

No step was taken by the Appellant challenging non-admission of the claim. Appellant having not taken any steps for agitating its claim before the Adjudicating Authority at the relevant time, it is not open for the Appellant to raise any grievance for non-allocation of any amount in the Resolution Plan.

NCLAT also observed that the approval of Resolution Plan by Adjudicating Authority has also been upheld by the Supreme Court in the matter of Kalpraj Dharamshi vs Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd (Civil Appeal No. 2943-2944).

The NCLAT did not find any ground to interfere with the order of the Adjudicating Authority and dismissed the appeal.

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