- (1.) Under Consideration is a Company Petition filed by Shri Maruti Electrical Enterprises Limited (in short, 'Petitioner/Operational Creditor') against M/s. SAS Realtors Private Limited (in short, 'Respondent/Corporate Debtor') under section 433 of the Companies Act, 1956 before the Hon'ble Madras High Court and stood transferred to this Tribunal pursuant to the Companies (Transfer of Pending Proceedings) Rules 2016 and now needs determination under section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (In short, 'D3 Code 2016') r/w Rule 6 of the Insolvency &Bankruptcy (Application to Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2016 (for brevity, 'IB Rules 2016') .
(2.) Before proceeding with this matter, it would be appropriate to make a note of background facts for the purpose of determination of this petition.
(3.) The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner/OC submitted that the petitioner was awarded an electrical contract by the respondent for their residential apartment for a sum of Rs. 58, 81,825/-and prior to the awarding of the contract, the respondent had made it clear that the said quoted sum was only an approximate and that the petitioner would be paid for the actual area covered and quantity. Thereafter, a revised sum of Rs. 73, 60,110/- was arrived at and accepted & acknowledged by the respondent. It is also submitted that the petitioner had been executing the work strictly in compliance with the terms and conditions of the said work and also to the satisfaction of the respondent. The petitioner had been submitting at each stage the electrical installations, mentioning the start and the end dates, floor-wise and the same was approved by the project-incharge of the respondent. The petitioner, while executing the work, had also been submitting regular running bill account to the respondent. The respondent asked the petitioner to complete upto the 8th floor, since the petitioner were short of funds and with regard to the remaining seven floors, wall switch boxes, DBS fixing and other related work was to be completed. In the month of February 2009, the petitioner had completed work in all respect and requested the respondent's engineers to verify and certify the Bills for payment and the engineers found certain defects which were subsequently rectified by the petitioner. The same was informed to the respondent in a letter dated 03.03.2009 after which the bill was submitted for the work done which in turn needed certification by the respondent for making payment in the month of March, 2009. Back then, the total amount due from the respondent after deducting the payments was Rs. 33,39,179/-, out of the total bill amount at Rs. 62,48,709/-. This included additional work and materials supplied of which the petitioner had received a sum of Rs. 29,09,530/- and the then director, Mr. Natarajan accepted the Bill and instructed the petitioner to vacate the site following which the petitioner vacated the site after informing the site engineer in the month of June 2009 leaving behind a few surplus materials.;