Saurabh Premprakash Chugh Vs State Bank of India (NCLAT Delhi)
National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), Delhi, has dismissed an appeal filed by an individual debtor, Saurabh Premprakash Chugh, upholding a lower tribunal’s decision that his attempt to re-file a personal insolvency application was legally impermissible. The case, involving the State Bank of India (SBI), centered on the principle of res judicata, which prevents a matter from being re-litigated after a final decision has been reached.
The NCLAT bench considered an appeal against an order from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) dated February 24, 2025. This order had dismissed a second application filed by Mr. Chugh under Section 94 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), which deals with personal insolvency for individuals. The NCLT’s dismissal of the second application was based on the fact that an identical application from Mr. Chugh had already been rejected on its merits just weeks earlier.
According to court records, Mr. Chugh had initially filed a personal insolvency application, which was dismissed by the NCLT on January 9, 2025. The NCLT’s order on the first application was highly critical of the petitioner’s submission. The tribunal noted that the application was “barred by limitation” and contained significant inconsistencies. It found that the petitioner had provided contradictory dates for the debt and the date of default, and had failed to submit crucial documents, such as copies of the guarantee documents and the first demand notice from the financial creditors. The NCLT concluded that these misrepresentations appeared to be a deliberate attempt to circumvent the limitation period and wrongly gain an interim moratorium.
