–Megha Mittal
(resolution@vinodkothari.com)
On 24th September, 2020, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs notified the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Application to Adjudicating Authority) (Amendment) Rules, 2020 (“Amendment Rules”)[1] in exercise of its powers under section 239 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“Code”), thereby requiring an advance copy of all applications filed before under section 7, 9 or 10 of the Code, to be served to the Corporate Debtor and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (“IBBI”).
By way of the said Amendment Rules, it is now required that-
- An application intended to be filed under section 7, 9 or 10, has to be served to the Corporate Debtor and the Board, prior to filing before the Adjudicating Authority (“AA”)
- The application filed before the AA must contain a proof of service to the Corporate Debtor and the Board;
- Disclosure by the Insolvency Professional (IP) with respect to the ongoing assignments at the time of filing;
- The application to be filed by the Operational Creditor must contain a certificate by the bank/ financial institution, where the creditor has its accounts, with respect to the sums which have been received by the Operational Creditor from the Corporate Debtor.
In this Article, we analyse the Amendment Rules, more specifically the requirement of advance notice, and its implications.
Service of the Application- ensuring a fair chance to be heard
NCLT and Principles of Natural Justice
The NCLT is a quasi-judicial body, constituted under section 408 of the Companies Act, 2013, and is subject to powers and duties set out under the National Company Tribunal Rules, 2016, as well as the Companies Act- One such duty is to ensure that the Rules of Natural Justice are abided by[2].
The Rules of Natural Justice, viz, (i) Rules against bias[3]; and (ii) the right to be heard[4] are not derived from any statute or constitution- it is based on common and moral law to ensure there is no contempt of justice. One of the components of the right to be heard is a “proper notice”, which ensures that the person who would be affected upon filing of the application is given notice of such filing to show cause against the proposed action. As such, whenever an application is filed, under any statute, or before any authority, it is a pre-requisite to serve an advance copy to the respondent.
Hence, the requirement to serve an advance copy of the application, to the corporate debtor existed prior to the Amendment Rules.
Additional service upon IBBI
The Amendment Rules now provide that an advance copy of the application has to be served on the Board as well, which in the humble view of the Author, seems to be a superfluous requirement.
First, the Central Government (MCA) has failed to provide any stated objectives or purpose behind such a requirement. While it may be argued that the same is for ensuring proper records and data, it must be noted that those applications which are eventually admitted, are anyway required to be informed to Board. The extant reporting requirement under the IBBI (Insolvency Process for Corporate Persons), Regulations, 2016 (“CIRP Regulations”), inter-alia intimation to IBBI in Form A, disclosure requirements forms CIRP-1, already ensure that sufficient information is provided to the Board to execute its functions as such.
However, if the objective behind such additional requirement was merely record keeping, the same could have also been provided for by integration or a simple cross-linking process with the already existing data rooms, from where the regulatory bodies may extract information as and when required. For instance, the e-filing portal of NCLT may make necessary arrangements such that once an application is filed on the portal, the information regarding such filing is simultaneously given to the Board.
Such a set-up would not only fulfil the understandable objective behind the Amendment Rules, but only waive off this additional burden levied upon the applicants. This would also be in concurrence with consistent suggestions of stakeholders towards creation of a common repository of data related to the Code.
It further remains unanswered whether in case of any supplementary filing and/ or rectified filing upon directions of the Bench, such advance service would be required again? In absence of any stated objective behind such Amendments, it would be difficult to comment if at all such re-servicing of a copy of the application would be required.
Readers may recall that a similar requirement of impleading the MCA in all applications filed under the Code was made mandatory by an order of the Hon’ble NCLT, Principal Bench, dated 22.11.2019[5] but later on nullified by an over-ruling order of the Appellate Tribunal[6] as one leading to duplicity of information and records. Similarly, the requirement of advance notice to the Board seems to be of a similar nature, and hence, in view of the Author, should not be added as a mandate.
Other Amendments
In addition to the service requirements as discussed above, the Amendment Rules also introduce further reporting obligations on the IPs and the Operational Creditors- the same has been discussed herein below-
Reporting of ongoing assignments by IPs
The Amendment Regulations, by way of an additional clause in Form 2, now requires that while giving consent to act as an RP, the Insolvency Professional must disclose the number of ongoing assignments that s/he has undertaking as on the day of filing of application.
In view of the Author, while the same is not required as information of similar nature is already required to be provided in Form IP-1. Hence, the same may be removed for the sake of brevity.
Obtaining Certificate by Banks/ Financial Institutions
As per Form 5 under Rule 6, of the NCLT Rules, an application filed by an operational creditor, other than creditors having their account with a foreign bank/ institution, must annex a copy of the relevant accounts from the banks/financial institutions maintaining accounts of the operational creditor confirming that there is no payment of the relevant unpaid operational debt by the operational debtor,if available.
Hence, the operational creditors could simply self-certify their bank statements and submit the same on affidavit, as being a part of the application.
However, the Amendment Rules have substituted the above requirement with a new form, namely Form 5A, which is a certificate required to be obtained from the bank/ financial institution that the amount for which the application is being filed, has not been received by the creditor.
The Author is of the view that the said requirement would only lead to needless complication and delays. This would not only impose an additional requirement upon the creditors, but would also burden the banks/ financial institutions who may receive requests for such certificate in large volumes. Hence, it is suggested that the earlier modus shall continue, and the requirement of such certificate may be done away with.
Further, it is also pertinent to note that recent amendment in section 4 of the Code, whereby the minimum default amount for filing an application under the Code, was increased from Rs. 1 lakhs to Rs. 1 crore already led to a massive sweep-out of OCs from the purview of IBC. Further procedural burden, for example requirement of a bank certificate, would only make recourse a tougher for the OCs.
Implications
From the discussion above, we can gather that a common element through-out the Amendment Rules is increased disclosure/ reporting/procedural requirements. The Author humbly states that while the consistent efforts of the Government and Board, and the common suggestions from the stakeholders has been directed towards easing the superfluous, more-than-needed reporting and disclosure requirement, the Amendment Rules come as a complete deviation.
While the objectives, purpose of advance service is neither explicitly stated not implied from the text, it must be noted that the same is not a substitution of existing regulations, but an additional requirement for concerns already covered. The Amendments infact lead to elongated procedures, which do not serve any additional purpose.
In this pretext the Author is of the humble view that the Amendment Rules do not provide any ease, clarification and/ or assistance in the filing process. As such, the Central Government may consider a roll-back of the same.
[1] https://www.ibbi.gov.in/uploads/legalframwork/27e336abe5b5328297a2ba5b35b39fac.pdf
[2] Sec 424 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013
[3] Nemo judex causa in sua
[4] Audi Alteram Partem
[5] Read our views on this order, in our article- http://vinodkothari.com/2019/11/mandatory-impleadment-of-mca-as-a-respondent/
[6] By an order dated 22.05.2020
