Srimanta Kumar Tripathy Vs S.S Mining and Infra Private Limited (NCLT)
NCLT held that documents being forged or not cannot be determined by the National Company Law Tribunal as National Company Law Tribunal is not a forum for adjudication of fraud.
Facts- This application has been jointly filed under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as “IBC, 2016”) by the petitioners herein i.e., Srimanta Kumar Tripathy and Anusuya Tripathy (together referred to as “OC”) for initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process in short (CIRP) against respondent/Corporate Debtor i.e., S.S Mining and Infra Private Limited (CD) for alleged default in repayment of Financial Debt of ₹ 1,98,47,957/-, due and payable by the Corporate Debtor to the Operational Creditors.
Conclusion- It is well settled that this Tribunal is not a forum for adjudication of fraud. It was held in Shelendra Kumar Sharma v DSC Ltd (2019 SCC OnLine NCLAT 1274) that Sofar as the question as to whether the documents are forged or not is concerned, it cannot be determined by the Adjudicating Authority (National Company Law Tribunal) or this Appellate Tribunal and therefore, the Act Adjudicating Authority rightly not deliberated on such issue.
FULL TEXT OF THE NCLAT JUDGMENT/ORDER
1. This application has been jointly filed under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as “IBC, 2016”) by the petitioners herein i.e., Srimanta Kumar Tripathy and Anusuya Tripathy ( together referred to as “OC”) for initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process in short (CIRP) against respondent/Corporate Debtor i.e., S.S Mining and Infra Private Limited (CD) for alleged default in repayment of Financial Debt of ₹ 1,98,47,957/- (Rupees One Crore Ninety Eight Lakh Forty Seven Thousand Nine Hundred Fifty Seven only), due and payable by the Corporate Debtor to the Operational Creditors.
2. Petitioners (OC) submit that the CD was incorporated on 23.02.2011 and was engaged in providing mining services to Orissa Mining Corporation The company was in needs of funds and thereby approached the petitioners to inject funds as share capital and other unsecured loans and provision of other services for smooth running of business.
3. OC further submit that they had other business units in their own name such as Maa Tarini Filing Centre, Maa Tarini Spares and Maintenance Centre, S.K Tripathy and Anusuya Tripathy. They supplied materials to the respondent company and also deployed their machineries on the request letter of MD of the respondent Company and raised bills. The dues for the transactions in their individual business was not paid wholly and at the end there remained Rs. 1,98,47,957/- as outstanding dues from the respondent company. They filed an arbitration petition before the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa for the whole amount outstanding (Both financial debt and operational debt). The summary of Operational Transactions and dues outstanding in nutshell is presented by the petitioners are as below:
