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2024 (4) TMI 712 - HC - Income TaxIncome tax proceedings against company dissolved / insolvent - Jurisdiction or authority to reopen or assess income for any period prior to the approval of the Resolution Plan - Distinction between voluntary and involuntary corporate insolvency - respondents chose to commence proceedings referable to Section 144B HELD THAT:- Resolution Plan once approved would bring the curtains down on any claims pertaining to a period prior to the approval of the RP is no longer res integra. We note that while dealing with an identical issue, we had in Ireo Fiverriver Pvt. Ltd [2024 (4) TMI 665 - DELHI HIGH COURT] as held successful resolution applicant cannot be foisted with any liabilities other than those which are specified and factored in the Resolution Plan and which may pertain to a period prior to the resolution plan itself having been approved. Section 144B power entails proceedings for assessment, reassessment or re-computation being initiated in terms of the faceless procedure of assessment as prescribed therein. Any effort to assess, reassess or re-compute could tend to lean towards a re-computation of liabilities which otherwise stands freezed by virtue of the Resolution Plan having been approved. Such an action or recourse would clearly be barred by Section 31 of the IBC which binds all creditors of the corporate debtor, including the Central and State Governments or any other local authority to whom a debt is owed. A Section 144B action is what the Supreme Court frowned upon and chose to describe as the “hydra head” and thus being contrary to the clean slate principle which the IBC advocates. We, consequently, find ourselves unable to sustain the impugned action. We find ourselves unable to sustain that line of reasoning bearing in mind the undisputable legal position which obtains in light of the scheme of the IBC and which fails to incorporate any distinction between voluntary and involuntary corporate insolvency. As we read the provisions of the Act, the IBC does not erect different levels of protection or insulation dependent upon whether corporate insolvency had been initiated voluntarily or on the basis of a petition referable to Section 7 of the IBC. In our considered opinion, the purport of Section 31 of the IBC stands conclusively settled by the Supreme Court in terms of the judgments rendered in Essar Steel India Ltd. Committee of Creditors v. Satish Kumar Gupta and Ghanashyam Mishra [2019 (11) TMI 731 - SUPREME COURT]. We also bear in mind that upon commencement of CIRP, the petition is duly advertised in terms of the provisions made in Regulation 6 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Regulations, 2016 and which would thus constitute due public announcement. The respondents, therefore, cannot sustain the invocation of Section 144B based on their own failure to lodge a claim within the time stipulated.
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