- (1.) This petition was originally filed in the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi under Section 433 (e), 434 (1) (a) and 439 of the Companies Act, 1956. On the enforcement of provisions of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and in pursuance of notification dated 30.11.2016 (notification No. S.O. 3591(E)) the National Company Law Tribunal has been designated as Adjudicating Authority in accordance with the provisions of Section 5 (1) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. A further notification for transfer of all such petitions pending before the High Court was issued on 07.12.2016. The cases where notice of the petition has not been served, have consequently been transferred by the High Court to this Tribunal. Accordingly, in pursuance of notification dated 07.12.2016 (notification No. G.S.R. 1119(E)) the petition has been transferred to this Tribunal.
(2.) The 'Operational Creditor'-applicant was required to comply with the provisions of Rules known as Companies (Transfer of Pending Proceedings) Rules, 2016 (for brevity Transfer Rules'). According to Rule 5 all petitions relating to winding up under clause (e) of section 433 of the Companies Act, 1956 on the ground of inability to pay its debts pending before a High Court, and where the petition has not been served on the respondent under rule 26 of the Companies (Court) Rules, 1959 it was required to be transferred to the Bench of the Tribunal established under sub-section (4) of section 419 of the Companies Act, 1956. Such petitions are required to be treated as applications under sections 7, 8 or 9 of the Code. An obligation is cast on the applicant to submit all information required for admission of the petition under Sections 7, 8 or 9 of the Code, as the case may be, including details of the proposed Insolvency professional to the National Company Law Tribunal. Initially a period of sixty (60) days was fixed from the date of the notification i.e. 07.12.2016. However, vide notification dated 28.02.2017 the period of sixty (60) days has been extended to six (6) months from 07.12.2016.
(3.) This petition was listed after transfer vide order dated 13.01.2017 passed by the Learned Company Judge of the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi. Accordingly, the matter was listed for hearing before us on 16.03.2017 when time for two weeks was granted to furnish necessary information under the Code in accordance with the requirement of notification dated 07.12.2016. When the matter came up for consideration on 26.04.2017 it was claimed that the notice to the respondent have been served but no one had put in appearance on behalf of the respondent. We posted the matter for 02.05.2017 but it was. adjourned for the reason that the noticeswere not served on the respondent. The matter came up for hearing on 11.05.2017.;