In a landmark judgment in Re Compuage Infocom Ltd and Anr., the Singapore High Court (“Singapore HC”) has, for the very first time, recognised a Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (“CIRP”) initiated under the Indian Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”) as a ‘foreign main proceeding’ under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (“Model Law”).

Case Title: Ganesh Ramkisan Rajale v. Panchtatwa Milk Industries Private Limited

Facts of the Case

Case:Rahee Jhajharia E to E JV v. MB Power (Madhya Pradesh Ltd.)

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), New Delhi, has ruled that an application under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), cannot be admitted when there is no direct contractual relationship between the Operational Creditor and the Corporate Debtor. In this case the Tribunal dismissed the claim of ₹16.08 crore, holding that the invoices were raised by the Appellant against Hindustan Thermal and not to the Corporate Debtor itself.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (“Supreme Court”) by a 2:1 majority in Independent Sugar Corporation Limited v Girish Sriram Juneja and Ors1, has held that in case of resolution plans proposing a combination (i.e., a merger or amalgamation of the entities) of a corporate debtor, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) must first grant the necessary approval before such Resolution Plan is placed before the Committee of Creditors (“CoC”) for it

•The limitation law concerns the primary concept of ascribing a fixed time frame within which all legal contentions are required to be raised by parties; the law in this regard is governed primarily by The Limitation Act.

•S. 238A of IBC, 2016 provides:-

“238A. The provisions of the Limitation Act, 1963 shall, as far as may be, apply to the proceedings or appeals before the Adjudicating Authority, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, the Debt Recovery Tribunal or the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal, as the case may be.”

Set-off is simply put a reduction or discharge of a debt by setting against it a claim in favour of the debtor (or the person otherwise having to pay).

The applicability of the principle of set-off under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IB Code) is no longer res integra and the draconian view of the inapplicability of set-off under insolvency proceedings has not found Thankfully, judicial favour.

Introduction

Given the increased intertwining of national economies, cross-border insolvency presents salient legal and financial difficulty. Upon the existence of an insolvent debtor in more than one country, the necessity to deal with assets and/or creditors creates very complicated jurisdictional problems and other legal issues. Most of the time, a company will operate in several jurisdictions and hence face very complicated transnational insolvency scenarios.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (‘IBBI’) has recently come up with a proposal for the parties involved in an operational creditor application to explore mediation under the provisions of the Mediation Act, 2023. This is aimed as a precursor to the filing of an application under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (‘Code’).