The Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has ruled that pre-CIRP dues of a company cannot be recovered from an auction purchaser merely because the purchaser acquired its leasehold property through liquidation on an “as is where is” basis.
The bench comprising Judicial Member Praveen Gupta and Technical Member Ashish Verma observed, “In view of the above, the mere “as is where is” condition or the subsequent transfer of the leasehold interest cannot convert the pre-CIRP liability of the Corporate Debtor into an independent personal liability of the Applicant. The pre-CIRP dues of the Corporate Debtor were required to be dealt with through the liquidation process in accordance with Section 53 of the…