జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ సివిల్ & లీగల్ సైన్సెస్

నైరూప్య

Corporate Criminal Liability Under §29A(D) of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

Mayank Udhwani

The object of this article is to analyse §29A(d) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 under the lens of the concept of Corporate Criminal Liability. §29A, which was inserted vide an amendment act of 2018, lays down 10 criteria which disqualifies a person from submitting a resolution plan. Clause (d) bars a person from submitting a resolution plan if such a person is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment for two years or more. The question of interpretation of §29A(d) was determined by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) vide its order dated 10th August 2018 in the matter of Renaissance Steel India Pvt. Ltd. v. Electrosteels Steel India Ltd. In this article, the author will establish that §29A(d) does not apply to corporate person, except in two cases discussed in section B.2 of this article. To buttress his claim, the author will present a line of argument, which was not raised before the NCLAT. Lastly, the author presents a case against purposive interpretation of §29A(d) to conclusively establish that juristic entities fall outside the purview of §29A(d) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.