Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 – s.9 – Arrears of salary – claim of – Appellant filed an application u/s.9 of the 2016 Code and averred that a sum of Rs.1.87 Crores was owed to him, being the arrears of salary from the year 1998 till 2013 when he retired from service, and that several acknowledgments of liability have been given of the arrears payable, the last of which was by a letter dated 30.09.2014 by the erstwhile Managing Director of the respondent-company – National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) setting out the acknowledgement of liability letter dated 30.09.2014, went on to state that the principal amount of Rs. 1.06 Crores being admitted, a case was made out for admission – National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) set aside the NCLT order and referred to a letter by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation dated 13.04.2016 and stated that the Appellant’s claim was settled as a result of that letter – Before the Supreme Court, respondentcompany contended that claim of the appellant is time barred – On appeal, held: The fact that from the date of the last acknowledgement i.e. 30.09.2014 till the date on which the petition before the NCLT was filed i.e. 27.07.2017, three years have not elapsed – Therefore, at least to the extent of an acknowledgement made by the then Managing Director of the Corporate Debtor, the arrears of salary due for a period of at least 3 years prior to 30.09.2014 would certainly be within limitation, and therefore payable to the Appellant – Employees Provident Fund letter dated 13.04.2016 was only a red-herring, and has nothing to do with the arrears of salary which had to be paid – This being the case, the NCLT judgment is correct in admitting the s. 9 application by the Appellant – Consequently, the NCLT judgment is restored to the file – The impugned NCLAT judgment is accordingly set aside.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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