07

Financial and operational creditors are defined in IBC, 2016. The definitions of a financial and an operational creditor as obtaining in the Code of 2016 can be said to have certainty and exactitude. The classification made by the Code of 2016 amongst the creditors of a company is on reasonable differential. The differential introduced by the Code in respect of a creditor of a company does not offend any provisions of the Constitution of India. At least the same is not the argument of the parties before Court. What has been argued is that, the differentiation between the two creditors is such that, one of the classified creditors, that is to say, the financial creditor takes precedence over the operational creditor. Whether the treatment of a financial creditor on pedestal higher than an operational creditor and bestowing a higher or better right, so to speak, to a financial creditor is just and proper or whether the same offends any provisions of the Constitution of India requires consideration.