India: NCLT Has No Power To Quash Civil Suit Or Direct Police To Arrest Any Person Obstructing Liquidator Under IBC : NCLAT

In an unprecedented order, Mumbai Bench of NCLT had passed an order quashing a Civil Suit against the corporate debtor pending with Civil Court, Junior Division, Wada District Palghar, Maharashtra filed by a person claiming user of property auctioned by the liquidator during liquidation process. NCLT also directed Police to arrest the said person for threatening and obstructing Liquidator.

On appeal¹, the Appellate Tribunal has set aside the order of the NCLT holding that the direction passed by the Adjudicating Authority quashing Civil Suit is not legal. The NCLT had relied upon section 33(5) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 to pass such an order and the Appellate Tribunal rightly noted that "even if such bar is there in section 33(5) read with sectiosn 63 and 231, it is not appropriate for the Adjudicating Authority to quash the concerned suit which is filed in the Civil Court. It would be for the Liquidator to move the concerned Civil Court pointing out the provision of IBC or to move the District Court in the hierarchy for quashing of the Suit concerned."

The Appellate Tribunal also modified the order of arrest by the Police with the direction that "the Police concerned should take suitable action as per law."

Conclusion

At the first instance, the Adjudicating Authority should not have passed such an unusual order quashing civil suit as it has no power to do so under IBC. Its jurisdiction does not extend to orders passed by civil courts. On the contrary, It should have directed the liquidator to approach the civil court by bringing to its attention relevant provisions of the Code barring jurisdiction of civil courts during liquidation or corporate insolvency resolution process. Based on the outcome, higher courts could have been approached by the liquidator including filing of a writ petition before the High Court. Seemingly, even the liquidator was ill advised.

NCLT should have also refrained from directing arrest of the Appellant as it cannot do so under the Code. Appellate Tribunal remedied the situation by modifying the order of NCLT and directing the Police to take action as may be warranted under law. The over enthusiastic approach adopted by NCLT does not reflect the judicial wisdom expected of NCLT benches, which is critical to success of the Code. Though subtle in nature, the course correction by Appellate Tribunal was desirable.

Footnotes

1 E.C. John vs. Jitender Kumar Jain & Ors., Company Appeal (AT) (Ins) No.249 of 2020, dated 1^st September, 2020

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