National Company Law Appellate Tribunal
1. Wrinkle Marketing Private Limited & ... vs Roselabs Bioscience Limited on 25 September, 2024
Author: Ashok Bhushan
Bench: Ashok Bhushan
NATIONAL COMPANY LAW APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI
Comp. App. (AT) (Ins) No. 1795 of 2024 &
I.A. No. 6546, 6548 of 2024
IN THE MATTER OF:
Wrinkle Marketing Pvt. Ltd. & Anr. ...Appellants
Versus
Roselabs Bioscience Ltd. ...Respondents
Present:
For Appellant : Appeared but presence not marked.
For Respondents :
ORDER
(Hybrid Mode) 25.09.2024: I.A. No. 6548 of 2024 This is an application praying for condonation of 13 days' delay in filing the appeal. Sufficient ground is shown in paragraph- 3 & 4 of the application for condonation of delay. Cause shown for delay in filing of the appeal is sufficient. Delay is condoned.
I.A. No. 6546 of 2024 Sufficient cause has been shown in condoning the refiling delay. Refiling Delay is condoned.
Comp. App. (AT) (Ins) No. 1795 of 2024 This appeal has been filed against the order passed by the Adjudicating Authority rejecting Section 7 application by order dated 05.06.2024. Appellant has earlier filed a Section 7 application for the same debt which claim to be dismissed vide order dated 08.01.2021 in CP (IB) No. 570/NCLT/AHM/2019 and CP (IB) No. 571/NCLT/AHM/2019. Appellant thereafter filed an application to recall the said order by MA No.8/2021 which also came to be dismissed on 27.06.2022. Appellant thereafter filed the Company Petition Section 7 giving rise to the present appeal being CP (IB) No. 242 of 2022 which came to be dismissed by Adjudicating Authority.
2. Adjudicating Authority while dismissing the application has also imposed a penalty of Rs.5 Lacs on the appellant.
3. Ld. Counsel for the appellant challenging the order submits that application filed by the appellant was maintainable since earlier application was not dismissed on merits rather on the ground that it is not maintainable. He further submits that the observation of the Adjudicating Authority that appellant has concealed the fact of earlier filing is not correct because in the application which was filed under Section 7 appellant has filed the copy of the earlier order passed by Adjudicating Authority and he has referred to copy of the application under Section 7 at page-276 and Part-IV of the application in sub- paragraph-K where the mention of the earlier application and its rejection was clearly mentioned.
4. We have heard counsel for the appellant and perused the record. When the earlier application which was filed by the financial creditor against the corporate debtor for the debt which came to be rejected by the Adjudicating Authority vide order dated 08.01.2021 and said order was never challenged by the appellant for the same debt it was not open for the appellant to file a fresh application more so when the application which was filed by the appellant to 2 of 3 Comp. App. (AT) (Ins) No. 1795 of 2024 & I.A. No. 6546, 6548 of 2024 recall the said order was also rejected on 27.06.2022. The Adjudicating Authority while rejecting the application has made following observations:
"The application is filed on 07.10.2021 against the order passed by this Bench dismissing the main IB application on 10.02.2021 i.e. nearly after 9 months. This in our view is an afterthought and abuse of process of Law. We warn the Applicant not to indulge into such practices, wasting judicious time of the Court. Application is dismissed by rejecting all the prayers."
5. We thus are of the view that Adjudicating Authority has not committed any error in rejecting Section 7 application subsequently filed for the same debt. However, in so far as the observation of the Adjudicating Authority that appellant has concealed the fact of filing the earlier application, it is clear that appellant has disclosed the earlier application in Part-IV has noticed above. In paragraph-14 the Adjudicating Authority has observed that the appellant has concealed the facts of the matter before the same Tribunal which has already been rejected. However, from the facts presented we are of the view that while maintaining the order of the Adjudicating Authority dismissing Section 7 application the penalty imposed needs to be deleted. Subject to deletion of the penalty the appeal is dismissed.
[Justice Ashok Bhushan] Chairperson [Barun Mitra] Member (Technical) [Arun Baroka] Member (Technical) harleen/NN 3 of 3 Comp. App. (AT) (Ins) No. 1795 of 2024 & I.A. No. 6546, 6548 of 2024