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B.R. GAVAI, J.

1. Leave to file Civil Appeal in Diary No. 24125 of 2020 is granted.

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2. All these appeals, assail the judgment and order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as “NCLAT”) dated 5.8.2020, passed in Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) Nos. 344­345 of 2020.

3. By the said judgment and order dated 5.8.2020, NCLAT has allowed the appeals filed by Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (hereinafter referred to as “KIAL”), respondent No.1 herein, aggrieved by two separate orders dated 28.11.2019 passed by National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench (hereinafter referred to as “NCLT” or “Adjudicating Authority”) in M.A. No.1039 of 2019 and M.A. No. 691 of 2019. NCLAT has set aside the said orders passed in the said M.As. M.A. No.1039 of 2019 was filed by KIAL objecting to grant of approval to the resolution plan submitted by Kalpraj Dharamshi and Rekha Jhunjhunwala, a consortium, (hereinafter referred to as “Kalpraj”), which is appellant in Civil Appeal Nos. 2943­2944 of 2020. NCLT has rejected the said M.A. Whereas, M.A. No. 691 of 2019 was filed by the Resolution Professional of Ricoh India Limited (hereinafter referred to as “the Corporate Debtor”) for grant of approval to the Resolution Plan submitted by Kalpraj. NCLT has allowed the said M.A. and approved the resolution plan submitted by Kalpraj.

Vide the said order, NCLAT, while setting aside both the orders dated 28.11.2019, passed by NCLT, also directed CoC to take a decision afresh, in the light of the directions issued in its order, regarding consideration of the Resolution Plans, which were submitted prior to the prescribed date as per last Form ‘G’. This was directed to be done in a period of ten days from the date of the said order. NCLAT further directed, that if no decision was communicated to the Adjudicating Authority i.e. NCLT and since the timeline for completion of CIRP had already expired, the Adjudicating Authority was to pass an order for liquidation of the corporate debtor.

157. It is further to be noted, that after the resolution plan of Kalpraj was approved by NCLT on 28.11.2019, Kalpraj had begun implementing the resolution plan. NCLAT had heard the appeals on 27.2.2020 and reserved the same for orders. It is not in dispute, that there was no stay granted by NCLAT, while reserving the matters for orders. After a gap of five months and eight days, NCLAT passed the final order on 5.8.2020. It could thus be seen, that for a long period, there was no restraint on implementation of the resolution plan of Kalpraj, which was duly approved by NCLT. It is the case of Kalpraj, RP, CoC and Deutsche Bank, that during the said period, various steps have been taken by Kalpraj by spending a huge amount for implementation of the plan. No doubt, this is sought to be disputed by KIAL. However, we do not find it necessary to go into that aspect of the matter in light of our conclusion, that NCLAT acted in excess of jurisdiction in interfering with the conscious commercial decision of CoC.

159. In that view of the matter, we find, that Civil Appeal Nos. 2943­2944 of 2020 filed by Kalpraj; Civil Appeal Nos. 2949­2950 of 2020 filed by RP and Civil Appeal Nos. 3138­3139 of 2020 filed by Deutsche Bank deserve to be allowed. It is ordered accordingly. The order passed by NCLAT dated 5.8.2020 is quashed and set aside and the orders passed by NCLT dated 28.11.2019 are restored and maintained.

160. Insofar as, the Civil Appeals arising out of D.No. 24125 of 2020 filed by Fourth Dimension Solutions Limited are concerned, it is submitted, that the appeal preferred by it against the order of NCLT is still pending before NCLAT. Without going into the merits of the rival contentions of the parties, we direct NCLAT to decide the appeal of Fourth Dimension Solutions Limited in accordance with law, as expeditiously as possible, and in any case, within a period of two months from today.