In this case, an IA filed by Liquidator to seeking permission to defend all of any of the suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings etc. was allowed by NCLT, however, subsequent IA filed for maintainability of a writ petition was dismissed by AA.
Hon’ble NCLAT holds that:
(i) There cannot be any exception to requirement of law as contained in Section 33(5) of the Code i.e. legal proceeding may be instituted by the liquidator, on behalf of the corporate debtor, with the prior approval of the Adjudicating Authority.
(ii) When the application was filed by the Liquidator, this was with intent and purpose to obtain prior approval of the Adjudicating Authority to instituted legal proceeding on behalf of the Corporate Debtor, which application was allowed by the Adjudicating Authority. The subsequent application became necessary as the objection was raised to the maintainability of the Writ Petition on the ground that there is no prior approval with regard to filing of the Writ petition.
(ii) Order is set aside. I.A. is allowed holding that the proceedings which was initiated by the Liquidator by filing Writ Petition was fully covered by the approval as given by the Adjudicating Authority by order dated 28.04.2022.