UNIVALUE PROJECTS PVT LTD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions have been filed by the petitioners under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, in which a stern challenge has been mounted to an impugned order dated May 12, 2020 issued by the Registrar of the National Company Law Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as "NCLT") at its Principal Bench in New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as "Respondent No. 3"), that prime facie, appears to have been issued with the approval of the Hon'ble Acting President of the NCLT, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as "Respondent No. 2").

(2.) It appears that the order dated May 12, 2020 imposes a mandatory prescription on all financial creditors, as defined under the extant provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as "IBC, 2016") to submit certain financial information as a record of default before the Information Utility (hereinafter referred to as, "IU") as a condition precedent for filing any new application under Section 7 of the IBC, 2016. The order further transcends to impose this purported mandatory prescription retrospectively on all those applicants / financial creditors who have pre-existing applications filed under Section 7 of the IBC, 2016 and pending before the various Benches of the NCLT, prior to such final hearing of these applications.

(3.) It is the grouse of the first writ petitioner that by virtue of being a financial creditor who has such a pre-existing application filed under Section 7 of the IBC, 2016 pending before the NCLT at its Kolkata Bench, the impugned order has the effect of adversely altering their substantive rights as granted to a creditor under the provisions of the IBC, 2016. Not restricting themselves to a singular dimension to such a judicial challenge of such order, the petitioner has also urged that this order has been issued de hors the parent Act that establishes the NCLT, i.e. the Companies Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as "CA, 2013"), other relevant provisions of the IBC, 2016 as well as in contravention of prevailing Regulations issued by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (hereinafter referred to as, "IBBI"), the regulatory board established under the IBC, 2016.