New Delhi, Mar 3 (PTI) The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday condoned the delay over a plea to initiate an insolvency petition filed against food & beverage major PepsiCo India Holdings by one of its operational creditors and directed to list for hearings before a bench. The Registrar of the appellate tribunal has condoned the delay of six days in re-filing the Memo of Appeal against the orders of the Chandigarh bench of the National Company Law Tribunal, which had rejected SNJ Synthetics’s plea. Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a person aggrieved by an NCLT order can challenge it before the appellate tribunal NCLAT by filing an appeal within 30 days from the date of receiving the NCLT order. “Considering the submissions made on behalf of the appellant and for the reasons mentioned in the IA, which are sufficient, the delay of 06 days in re-filing the Memo of Appeal is hereby condoned. As prayed, list the case before the Bench under the heading ‘for admission (fresh case)’,” said an order by NCLAT Registrar. The Chandigarh bench of NCLT on January 5, 2025, dismissed the section 9 plea filed by SNJ Synthetics against PepsiCo India Holdings after observing that in the present case, the principal amount stands paid, therefore the CIRP (corporate insolvency resolution process) cannot be initiated solely on the basis of the claim of interest component. SNJ Synthetics had claimed a due of ₹1.96 crore in which principal amount was at ₹91.63 lakh and had calculated interest at the rate of 24 per cent per annum of ₹1.05 crore as on February 28, 2021. During the pendency, the parties settled on February 10, 2023, the amount of Principal outstanding with the Reconciled Amount of ₹77.73 lakh and then after the petitioner has submitted that its claim now is for the outstanding interest amount of ₹1.05 crore. However, this was dismissed by NCLT observing that the principal amount has been paid during the pendency of the Petition, therefore a requirement of Section 9(5)(i)(b) of IBC is not complied with. Section 9(5)(i)(b) of the Code provides that NCLT shall admit the application if there is no payment of the unpaid operational debt and reject the application if there has been payment of the unpaid operational debt. NCLT also said the reconciled amount was ₹77.73 lakh, which is only 84.83 per cent of ₹91.63 lakh, which is the principal amount claimed in the Petition and if the same ratio is applied presuming the proportional reduction of each of the principal amount due from PepsiCo, the interest amount works out to ₹89.21 lakh, which would be below the threshold amount of ₹1 crore and thus the petition may not be maintainable for the interest amount. Moreover, the supply agreement dated October 9, 2018, did not have the signature of both the parties, said NCLT. The memo of appeal was filed by SNJ Synthetics on January 28, however, NCLAT’s registrar office, after scrutiny of t
NCLAT has accepted the late submission of a request to start insolvency proceedings against PepsiCo and will schedule it for a hearing.
