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2021 (11) TMI 1053 - AT - Insolvency and BankruptcyMaintainability of application - initiation of CIRP - Corporate Debtor failed to make repayment of its dues - Financial Creditors - existence of debt and dispute or not - it is alleged that instead of responding to One Time Settlement (OTS) proposal of the Appellant, Respondent No.2 filed application under section 7 of the IBC against the Corporate Debtor - HELD THAT:- From perusal of the Impugned Order dated 26.8.2021, it is clear that in response to the section 7 application, the Managing Director of Corporate Debtor representing Respondent Nos. 1 to 5 filed reply which was considered by the Adjudicating Authority. It is also mentioned in the Impugned Order, paragraph 12 that Mr. Tushar Ravi, Chief Manager, State Bank of India, Khanapara Branch filed an affidavit dated 4.8.2021 in which he stated that due to inadvertence names of the personal guarantors were inserted as Respondent Nos. 2 to 7 and the names of Respondent Nos. 2 to 7 be deleted from the instant application - the contention of the Appellant that the petitioner (financial creditor-State Bank of India) did not comply with the order given by the Adjudicating Authority on 26.7.2021, which was regarding filing of affidavit to delete names of personal guarantors from the section 7 application, cannot be agreed upon. The other contention of the Learned Counsel of the Appellant is that the Appellant had submitted an OTS proposal to the financial creditor (State Bank of India), which was pending decision, and hence the Adjudicating Authority should not have passed admission order on section 7 application. The acceptance of the settlement proposal by the financial creditor is a matter entirely in the ambit of the financial creditor (SBI) and we do not think that the proceedings before the Adjudicating Authority should have been held up and delayed, waiting for a response by the State Bank of India. IBC does not provide for keeping the proceedings in abeyance and the application for admission has to be decided in a stipulated timeframe. If a settlement would have been reached, the Appellant would have had recourse to Section 12A of the IBC. The Innoventive Industries judgment [2017 (9) TMI 58 - SUPREME COURT] of the Hon’ble Supreme Court does not put any bar on the admission of an application under section 7 if the defects as pointed out to the petitioner have been cured. Appeal dismissed.
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