The case of Bikram Bhadur Vs. Union Bank of India & Anr. was a recent judgment by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on the interpretation of Section 10A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The applicant, Bikram Bhadur, was an operational creditor of a corporate debtor, which had defaulted on debts to several banks, including Union Bank of India. The issue at hand was whether the IBC’s Section 10A, which excludes debt obligations from the scope of insolvency proceedings, applied to debt acknowledgments between the corporate debtor and the banks.
The NCLAT held that debt acknowledgments under Section 10A are only applicable to debts that meet the specific criteria outlined in the section, which includes debts that are not “receivable” as debtors. The tribunal further held that the debt acknowledgment was not “exclusive” as it did not meet the requirements of Section 10A. Therefore, the debt was not excluded from the scope of insolvency proceedings. The judgment clarifies the application of Section 10A and provides a clear understanding of the scope of debt acknowledgments under the IBC.