The Chennai Bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has rejected an insolvency petition filed by Ramesh Kymal, former Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Power Pvt. Ltd. over alleged non-payment of settlement dues.
₹104 crore in claims
Mr. Kymal, who quit on April 30, alleged in his petition that the company had not paid him dues of ₹104.11 crore. Against this, Siemens Gamesa filed a petition against Mr. Kymal. The NCLT rejected Kymal’s plea, citing the insertion of Section 10 A in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) through promulgation of ordinance, which provided relief from filing of insolvency proceedings on defaults which happened on or after March 25, 2020.
It noted that the ordinance was promulgated to meet an extraordinary situation and avoid causing further stress to the already beleaguered businesses due to the prevalence of COVID pandemics throughout the world, including India,, in addition to the impact from the lockdown imposed by the Union and State governments.
The section 10A suspends filing of insolvency petitions against defaults arising on or after March 25 for a period of six months extendable by a further period not exceeding one year, it said.
NCLT also noted that the ordinance clearly mentioned that the Section 10A would not be applicable for defaults prior to March 25. It noted that even by Kymal’s own plea, the default occurred on April 30.
“The case before the NCLT was closed by applying the latest IBC ordinance dated June 05, 2020. Appeals to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal and Supreme Court are avenues to challenge the closure of the case. The merits of Mr. Kymal’s case before the NCLT have not been adjudicated upon due to this technical issue. Any news reports stating that Mr. Kymal has lost against Siemens Gamesa in his case is therefore blatantly wrong,” Fox Mandal & Associates, counsels for Mr. Kymal said.
“Siemens Gamesa has always been confident of succeeding before the NCLT in the insolvency proceedings filed by Ramesh Kymal on the basis of certain unlawful claims. Siemens Gamesa has immense faith in our judicial system and is pleased that the NCLT has dismissed the insolvency proceedings filed by Ramesh Kymal,” Samudra Sarangi, counsel for Siemens Gamesa said.