MANIAR METAL Vs. TRANSPARENT ENERGY SYSTEMS PRIVATE LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above Interim Application has been filed by the Applicant seeking an order to withdraw the sum of Rs.7.00 Lakhs deposited by the Petitioner with the Prothonotary and Senior Master of this Court along with interest accrued thereon.

(2.) The Applicant was the Original Respondent in the above Company Petition. The above Company Petition was filed by the Petitioner in the year 2016 seeking to wind up the Applicant- Company on the ground that it was unable to pay its debts. Thereafter, the disputes between the Petitioner and the Applicant company were settled by entering into Consent Terms dtd. 13/10/2017 under which the Applicant company was to make certain payments to the Petitioner in a time-bound manner. According to the Applicant, due to financial constraints it could only make payment of a sum of Rs.7.00 Lakhs. In these circumstances the Petitioner applied for revival of the aforesaid Company Petition and the same was admitted by this Court on 29/6/2018. At the time of admission of this Petition, this Court directed the Petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs.7.00 Lakhs (received by the Petitioner under the Consent Terms) with the Prothonotary and Senior Master of this Court. This was duly done by the Petitioner in the year 2018 itself.

(3.) Thereafter, in the year 2018, one Tractable Engineering Pvt. Ltd., an operational creditor of the Applicant, filed a Petition under Sec. 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 before the National Company Law Tribunal ("NCLT"), Mumbai Bench. That Petition was admitted by the NCLT vide its order dtd. 8/3/2019. Considering that the Petition fled by Tractable Engineering Pvt. Ltd. before the NCLT was admitted, this Court by its order dtd. 24/7/2019 also transferred the above Company Petition to the NCLT. In the said order, this Court clarified that in case the Interim Resolution Professional wishes to stake a claim to the amount of Rs.7.00 Lakhs (deposited in this Court), he may take out a proper application for the same. It is common ground before me that the Interim Resolution Professional/Resolution Professional never filed any proceedings for withdrawal of the aforesaid amount of Rs.7.00 Lakhs.