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The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has invited expression of interest (EoI) from qualified resolution professionals to be a part of the panel which is being created by the regulator for ready reference of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
A panel is proposed to be created for each bench of the Adjudicating Authority, which in this case, is the NCLT. There are 10 benches of the NCLT in the country. Resolution professionals looking to form part of the panel should submit the duly filled-up form to the IBBI by June 15.
Scoring format
While selecting a resolution professional to be part of the panel, a scoring format will be adopted and the resolution professional who is handling less number of ongoing process (assignments) gets the highest score.
It may be recalled that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) allows an Adjudication Authority (NCLT) to make a reference or direction to the IBBI for recommending the name of a resolution professional to be appointed as an interim resolution professional (IRP) or liquidator.
In the absence of data (not readily available at times), the timelines provided under the code of 10 days get exceeded, pointed out Daizy Chawla, Senior Partner, Singh & Associates, a law firm.
With the constitution of a panel, the Adjudicating Authority can pick up the name of a resolution professional to be appointed as interim resolution professional or liquidator, she added.
Under the IBC regulations, a panel so created will have a validity of six months, and after six months the said panel will be replaced by a new one. .
Interestingly, the current IBC regulation stipulates that an IRP, who is included in the panel based on his expression of interest, must not: (a) refuse to act as IRP or Liquidator, if appointed by the AA; (b) withdraw his interest to act as IRP / Liquidator; and (c) surrender his registration during the validity of the Panel.
“In my opinion, it is an unfair ask from a resolution professional to commit. Earlier, the expression of interest to act as an IRP was case-specific, and therefore, a resolution professional had a fair idea of the matter at hand. However, the resolution professional will now be blocked for six months and will have no say before being asked to take on a matter,” Saurav Kumar, Partner, Induslaw, a law firm told BusinessLine here.
He also said that the form, under which the resolution professional expresses his interest, does not provide for any relevant expertise of such resolution professional. So, the NCLT deciding on a particular professional will be only on the assumption that the entire list of resolution professionals have similar expertise, he said.
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