The NCLAT has held that the term “dispute” as defined in the IBC is illustrative and not exhaustive. However, such dispute must be relatable to the debt or default claimed. Therefore, the word “includes” ought to be read as “means and includes” and would pertain to the proceedings initiated or pending before consumer court, tribunal, labour court or mediation, conciliation etc.
Interestingly, this has been the major moot point before various benches of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
Factual Matrix
The appeal before the NCLAT had arisen out of an order passed by the NCLT, Mumbai Bench, dated 27 January of this year. The Bench had rejected the claim of the operational creditor on the ground of dispute being raised with respect to existence of debt by the operational debtor.
The operational creditor, in the appeal filed before the NCLAT, took the plea that merely disputing a claim of default of debt cannot be a ground to reject the application under Section 9 of the IBC, till the corporate debtor refers any dispute pending.
The question that was taken up for deliberation before the NCLAT was what do “dispute” and “existence of dispute” mean for the purpose of determination of a petition under section 9 of the IBC.
Findings of the NCLAT
Applying the aforementioned principles, the NCLAT came to the conclusion that in the instant case, the defence raised for dispute by the operational debtor was vague and motivated to evade liability. Accordingly, it has remitted the case back to the NCLT, Mumbai Bench for admission of the application if the application is otherwise complete.
PRA Law represented Kirusa Software and the team was led by Partners Jawahar Lal and Sanjeev Jain along with Apoorva Agrawal and Shyamal Anand while Desai & Diwanji represented Mobilox Innovations. The Desai & Diwanji team included Partner Shyam Pandya, Senior Associate Puneet Singh Bindra and Associates Debashree Dey and Rohan Kaushal. Desai & Diwanji instructed Mr. Devansh Mohta as its counsel.
Read the NCLAT Order, Desai Diwanji and PRA’s written submissions: