Case Title: Puneet Kaur v. K.V. Developers Private Limited
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Principal Bench, adjudicating in aforementioned case held that an information memorandum by a resolution professional shall incorporate belated claims of homebuyers if reflected in the record of the corporate debtor.
In this case, the appellants booked their flats with the corporate debtor, which is one of the real estate companies. The NCLT admitted the application under Section 7 of the IBC for initiating CIRP against the corporate debtor. Thereafter, the Resolution Professional was appointed, who further invited claims from creditors.
A resolution plan was then submitted and accepted by the Committee of Creditors (CoC) on April 9, 2021. After that, the Adjudicating Authority received this resolution proposal for final approval. Before the AA approved the resolution plan, the appellant(s) submitted their applications to the National Company Law Tribunal (the "NCLT"), asking for guidance on how to get the RP to admit their claims. On the grounds that the claims could not be admitted because they were filed eight months after the last period for submitting the claim, the NCLT, however, denied their claims. Furthermore, the resolution plan had previously received CoC approval. The appellant(s) filed an appeal before the Honourable NCLAT after being upset with the decisions made by the NCLT.
The NCLAT observed that it is the approval of the resolution plan by AA that extinguishes the claims, whether they appear in the resolution plan or not. In the instant case, only the approval of the CoC was obtained, and the approval of AA was pending, settling the dispute that the claims of the appellants are not extinguished until the approval of the resolution plan by the AA.
In addition to the aforementioned concerns, the NCLAT examined the issue of whether the RP was required to include the names of the homebuyers in the information memorandum even though they had not yet submitted their claims. It also considered whether the Resolution Applicant was required to address the issues of homebuyers whose names and claims were reflected in the corporate debtor's records even though they had not yet submitted any claims.
Regarding the former, the Hon'ble NCLAT noted that the Resolution Applicant should have taken note of the liabilities mentioned and should have dealt with them appropriately in the Resolution Plan. The homebuyers, whose claims were reflected in the CD record, should have been included in the information memorandum. Such claims, which are evident from the record, are not taken into consideration, which results in an unreasonable and unfair resolution.
Regarding the latter, the Hon'ble NCLAT made the observation that while the resolution plan cannot be rejected outright, the resolution applicants should nonetheless prepare an addendum to the resolution plan based on the information received by RP regarding the claims of the homebuyers whose details appeared in the company's records but who did not file their claim within the allotted time.