2023 (8) TMI 190 - NATIONAL COMPANY LAW APPELLATE TRIBUNAL , CHENNAI

Jurisdiction of Tribunal to entertain/initiate, the Insolvency Proceedings of the Personal Guarantors, even when no Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process proceedings, is pending, against the Corporate Debtor.

HELD THAT:- In the present case, it is brought to the notice of this ‘Tribunal’, on ‘Record’ that the ‘Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process’ proceedings, against the ‘Corporate Debtor’, were pending, on the ‘Date’, when the ‘Petition’, was filed before the ‘Adjudicating Authority’ / ‘Tribunal’, by the ‘1st Respondent / Financial Creditor’, and on the ‘Date’, when the ‘impugned order’, came to be passed, as on date, they continued to be pending - It is well settled by now, that the ‘Insolvency Proceedings’, can be initiated against the ‘Personal Guarantor’, even when ‘no proceedings’, are pending against the ‘Corporate Debtor’.

Going by the ingredients of Section 60 (1) of the I & B Code, 2016, it is quite clear, that for ‘Insolvency Resolution’ and ‘Liquidation’, for ‘Corporate Persons’, including ‘Corporate Debtors’ and ‘Personal Guarantors’, the ‘National Company Law Tribunal’ (‘Adjudicating Authority’), having ‘territorial jurisdiction’, over the place, where the ‘Registered Office’ of the ‘Corporate Person’, is located, and in the instant case, in the ‘State of Telangana’, the ‘Corporate Debtor’s Registered Office’, is situated, which comes within the ‘ambit of territorial jurisdiction’ of the ‘Adjudicating Authority’ (‘National Company Law Tribunal’, Bench – I, Hyderabad).

This ‘Tribunal’, keeping in mind the respective contentions advanced on either side, and considering the facts and circumstances of the instant case, in a conspectus manner, comes to a resultant conclusion that the ‘Adjudicating Authority’ / ‘Tribunal’, has ‘jurisdiction’, to ‘entertain’/’initiate’, the ‘Insolvency Proceedings’ of the ‘Personal Guarantors’, even when ‘no Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process’ proceedings, is ‘pending’, against the ‘Corporate Debtor’, and in any event, the ‘Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process’ proceedings, is pending, and continued to be pending, against the ‘Corporate Debtor’.

Appeal dismissed.