Supreme Court of India Electrosteel Steel Limited (Now M/S Esl ... vs Ispat Carrier Private Limited on 21 April, 2025 REPORTABLE 2025 INSC 525 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CIVIL APPEAL NO. 2896 OF 2024 (arising out of SLP (C) No. 15823 of 2023) ELECTROSTEEL STEEL LIMITED (NOW M/S ESL STEEL LIMITED) APPELLANT(S) VERSUS ISPAT CARRIER PRIVATE LIMITED RESPONDENT(S) JUDGMENT UJJAL BHUYAN, J. This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment and order dated 17.07.2023 passed by the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi in CMP No. 376 of 2023 filed by the appellant. 2. Appellant had filed CMP No. 376 of 2023 before the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi (briefly ‘the High Court’ hereinafter) under Article 227 of the Constitution of India Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by ANITA MALHOTRA Date: 2025.04.21 18:34:48 IST assailing the order dated 03.03.2023 passed by the learned Reason: Presiding Officer, Commercial Court/District Judge1, Bokaro in Commercial Execution Case No. 21 of 2022 (Execution Case No. 77 of 2018). It may be mentioned that by the aforesaid order dated 03.03.2023, learned Presiding Officer, Commercial Court/District Judge1, Bokaro (referred to hereinafter as ‘the Executing Court’) had dismissed the application dated 14.05.2019 filed by the judgment debtor (appellant), further directing the judgment debtor (appellant) to comply with the award dated 06.07.2018 passed by the West Bengal Micro, Small and Medium Facilitation Council, Kolkata within fifteen days of the order. 3. Relevant facts may be briefly noted. 4. On 02.12.2014 and 20.12.2014, respondent filed claim petitions before the West Bengal Micro, Small and Medium Facilitation Council (briefly ‘the Facilitation Council’ hereinafter) for a total principal outstanding amount of Rs. 1,59,09,214.00 which were registered as Case No. 330/2014 and Case No. 331/2014. In Case No. 330/2014, the claim amount was Rs. 1,36,69,981.33, whereas in Case No. 331/2014 the claim amount was Rs. 22,39,233.00, thus the total amount being Rs. 1,59,09,214.00. The claims were made 2 under the provisions of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the MSME Act’). 5. As per the requirement of the MSME Act, conciliation proceedings were initiated but attempt for conciliation failed. Thereafter, the arbitration proceedings were commenced on 07.06.2017. 6. On 27.06.2017, the financial creditors of the appellant invoked Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (‘IBC’ hereinafter) before the National Company Law Tribunal, Kolkata Bench (NCLT) which was registered as C.P. No.(IB) 361/KB/2017. 7. On 21.07.2017, NCLT imposed moratorium and an interim resolution professional was appointed. 8. On 24.07.2017, the interim resolution professional issued a public announcement calling upon all the creditors to submit their claims before him. 9. In view of the moratorium declared by the NCLT, arbitral proceedings before the Facilitation Council were kept in abeyance. 3 10. Respondent filed its claim before the resolution professional, who partly admitted the claim of the respondent. 11. On 29.03.2018, a resolution plan was submitted by Vedanta Limited before the NCLT wherein all the claims of operational creditors were settled at nil value. 12. However, claim of the respondent was not included in the resolution plan as approved by the committee of creditors. Ultimately, the resolution plan was approved by NCLT on 17.04.2018 under Section 31 of the IBC on and from which date the moratorium period came to an end. 13. In the order dated 17.04.2018, NCLT declared that the claims of all the operational creditors were settled at nil. No appeal was preferred by the respondent. However, the aforesaid order of the NCLT dated 17.04.2018 was challenged before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (NCLAT) in Company Appe