An application for Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) was filed by a Bank (being Financial Creditor) against RSI Ltd, which was admitted by the NCLT and an Interim Resolution Professional was appointed, the C

The facts of the case are similar to the case of Vijay Kumar Jain v. Standard Chartered Bank , Supreme Court of India, January 31, 2019. In the matter, an appeal was filed with Supreme Court against orders rejecting the prayer of an erstwhile director for getting copy of the resolution plans from the Resolution Professional (RP). Both the NCLT and NCLAT ruled that appellant had no right to receive the resolution plans. RP has contended that only the members of Committee of Creditors (CoC) are entitled to have resolution plans, as per section 30(3) of the Code read with Regulation 39(2) of the IBBI (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Regulations, 2016. Relying on the Notes on Clauses to Section 24 of the Code, they argued that the members of suspended Board of Directors are permitted to participate in CoC meetings only for the purpose of giving information regarding the financial status of the debtor. In this case the Supreme Court opined that the statutory scheme, makes it clear that though the erstwhile Board of Directors are not members of the committee of creditors, yet, they have a right to participate in each and every meeting held by the committee of creditors, and also have a right to discuss along with members of the committee of creditors all resolution plans that are presented at such meetings. The Supreme Court expressly rejected the argument based on Notes on Clauses to Section 24 of the Code and noted that every participant is entitled to a notice of every meeting of the committee of creditors. Such notice of meeting must contain an agenda of the meeting, together with the copies of all documents relevant for matters to be discussed and the issues to be voted upon at the meeting vide Regulation 21(3) (iii) of CIRP Regulations. The Supreme Court said the expression 'documents' is a wide expression which would certainly include resolution plans. Thus, members of erstwhile Board of Directors, being vitally interested in resolution plans that may be discussed at meetings of committee of creditors, must be given a copy of such plans as part of 'documents' that have to be furnished along with notice of such meetings. Hence, Vijay will succeed in his claim for attending the meetings of CoC and obtaining information about the CoC proceedings.