LegalAware
LegalAware.ai
EMPOWERING LEGAL AWARENESS

Bank of Baroda & Anr. vs. MBL Infrastructures Limited & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 53Decided 18 Jan 2022
Civil Appeal No. 8411 of 2019
Sanjay Kishan Kaul · M.M. Sundresh

Background

MBL Infrastructures Limited defaulted on loans from a consortium of banks, and its promoter, Anjanee Kumar Lakhotiya, had furnished personal guarantees that some banks invoked before insolvency proceedings began. After RBL Bank triggered corporate insolvency resolution under Section 7 of the IBC, the promoter submitted a resolution plan that was eventually approved by the Committee of Creditors, even after Section 29A (which disqualifies certain persons, including guarantors whose guarantees have been invoked, from submitting resolution plans) was introduced and later amended. The National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal had held the promoter was not disqualified because his guarantee liability had not "crystallised," prompting Bank of Baroda (a dissenting creditor) to appeal to the Supreme Court on the scope of Section 29A(h).

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Section 29A(h) is triggered by the mere existence of an enforceable personal guarantee that has been invoked by any creditor once an insolvency application is admitted. It need not be invoked specifically by the creditor who filed the application, since insolvency proceedings are proceedings "in rem" benefiting the class of creditors as a whole. Applying this, the Court found the promoter's guarantees had indeed been invoked by three financial creditors before the resolution plan was submitted, so his plan should not have been entertained, and the lower forums were wrong to treat the issue as barred by the earlier withdrawal of a related appeal (since no adjudication on merits had occurred then). However, on the specific facts: the plan having already secured the required creditor majority, remained operational since April 2018 with fresh capital infused, and safeguarding the interests of over 23,000 shareholders and thousands of employees. The Court declined to unwind the resolution plan, noting dissenting creditors' interests remained protected through liquidation-value payouts. The appeal was disposed of without disturbing the ongoing resolution plan, even though the promoter was technically ineligible under Section 29A(h).

Lesson Learnt

A person who has given a personal guarantee that any creditor has invoked becomes ineligible under Section 29A(h) of the IBC to submit a resolution plan for the defaulting company, but courts may still decline to unwind an already-implemented, broadly-approved resolution plan where doing so would harm employees, shareholders and an ongoing business, showing that legal ineligibility and practical relief can diverge once a plan is far along.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

More rulings in Company & Insolvency Law

Company & Insolvency LawDelhi High Court

M/S Meena Steels Limited vs. Punjab National Bank

The Court held that Section 125(2)(h) applies to money received by a company for allotment of securities, not to a refund arising from a court-sanctioned reduction of share capital, so the Bank's reliance on it was misplaced. Since the earlier orders had already been passed after considering the material on record and no error apparent on the face of the record was shown, the Court found no ground for review and dismissed the Bank's petition.

Decided 8 Oct 2026Read case
Company & Insolvency LawSupreme Court of India

Greenopolis Welfare Confederation v. Rakesh Kumar Gupta

The Supreme Court held that once an insolvency petition is admitted, the proceedings become proceedings "in rem" affecting all creditors and stakeholders, not just the original applicant, so the original applicant cannot simply withdraw, but if fraud and collusion are found, the Adjudicating Authority (AA) can and should disallow that fraudulent applicant from continuing, while deciding separately whether the wider insolvency process itself should still continue to protect other genuine stakeholders like homebuyers. The Court allowed this appeal in part, set aside the NCLAT's blanket recall of the entire CIRP, and restored the insolvency proceedings to the Adjudicating Authority, directing it to now decide afresh, after hearing the resolution professional, the committee of creditors, and the homebuyers, whether the CIRP should continue in view of the confirmed fraud, and to do so expeditiously given how long the case has run.

Decided 30 Sept 2026Read case
Company & Insolvency LawSupreme Court of India

M/S ASJ Finsolutions Pvt. Ltd. v. Vikram Bajaj

The Supreme Court upheld the NCLAT's decision and dismissed the appeal. It held that the e-auction notice explicitly provided for forfeiture of the entire amount paid, including the EMD, if a successful bidder failed to pay the balance sale consideration on time, and forfeiture followed automatically once that default occurred. The Court rejected the appellant's reliance on the "Triple Test" (rigged auction, lack of genuine bidder capacity, or extraneous prevention), finding none of those circumstances applied here, and held that a mere assertion of willingness to pay does not substitute for demonstrated financial capacity. The argument that liquidation regulations cap EMD at 10% of reserve price did not help the appellant, since it had voluntarily agreed to the auction notice's forfeiture clause covering the full deposit, not just the EMD.

Decided 28 Sept 2026Read case
Company & Insolvency LawSupreme Court of India

Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-II v. Mamta Binani & Ors.

The Supreme Court agreed that the NCLAT correctly read Section 61(2) as allowing no condonation beyond 45 days, and that its own precedents (National Spot Exchange, Tata Steel) were correctly stated but factually distinguishable since those cases involved litigant fault, not tribunal system failure. Here, the delay was caused entirely by a backend/OTP failure in the NCLAT's own e-filing system, as confirmed by the NCLAT Registry's own report. Invoking the principle "actus curiae neminem gravabit" (an act of the court shall harm no one), the Court held that limitation runs against a litigant only when the court/tribunal's own systems are actually capable of receiving filings; when the tribunal's system itself fails, the litigant should not be penalised. It set aside the NCLAT's order and restored the appeal for fresh consideration, directing that the date of the first bona fide e-filing attempt be treated as the date of presentation.

Decided 10 Sept 2026Read case
Company & Insolvency LawSupreme Court of India

M/S Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation v. Central Board of Trustees and Anr.

The Court reaffirmed settled law that Provident Fund and Gratuity dues of workmen must be paid in full by the resolution applicant, since these funds are not part of the liquidation estate and cannot be subjected to the insolvency law's "waterfall" distribution mechanism. On the question of whether "damages"/penalty under Section 14B of the EPF Act for delayed payment is automatic and mandatory, or whether the authority has discretion to reduce or waive it, the Bench found itself doubting an earlier Supreme Court decision (Horticulture Experiment Station Gonikoppal) which had held such penalty to be automatic. Rather than deciding this specific legal question itself, the Bench referred it to a larger bench for authoritative resolution, while clarifying the appellants remain free to separately seek waiver/reduction of penalty from the Central Board under the statute's second proviso to Section 14B. As practical interim relief, the Court directed the appellant companies to pay the outstanding EPF dues (with Section 7Q interest) in four quarterly instalments running from December 2026 to September 2027, failing which EPFO could proceed with recovery.

Decided 9 Sept 2026Read case
Company & Insolvency LawSupreme Court of India

The Authorised Representative for Granite Gate Properties Private Limited (Ms. Rakesh Verma) v. M/s New Okhla Industrial Development Authority

The Supreme Court held that NOIDA's lease with the original developer existed to serve a public welfare purpose, providing housing and industrial infrastructure, not pure profit-making, and that the penalty/time-extension charges were meant to deter and punish a defaulting developer, not innocent homebuyers or a new resolution applicant who had no role in the original default. Since the delay was solely the fault of the now-insolvent original developer, and the homebuyers and SRA had themselves funded and revived the stalled project, it would be unjust to pass on the developer's "past sins" as insolvency-resolution costs. The Court set aside the NCLAT's direction treating the time-extension charges as CIRP costs, and separately rejected NOIDA's own appeal for extending those penalty charges up to ten years under its newer, harsher policy. Granite Gate's appeal was allowed and NOIDA's appeal was dismissed.

Decided 3 Sept 2026Read case