The bankruptcy court in Mumbai has admitted Rolta Defence Technology Systems, an affiliate of software firm Rolta India, under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) following an application filed by one of its employees.
The development comes at a time when the resolution professional of Rolta India has sought fresh expressions of interest (EoI) for the company from its potential suitors.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), while admitting the application has also appointed Neha Jain Nemani as the insolvency resolution professional (IRP) of the company.
“We are of the considered view that the operational creditor has been able to establish the existence of an operational debt and its default having been committed by the corporate debtor,” said a division bench of judicial member Kuldip Kumar Kareer and technical member Anuradha Sanjay Bhatia. “The application is also within time. Therefore, the application deserves to be admitted.”
The application was filed by Mini Shivkumar Pillai, a former employee of Rolta Defence Technology Systems. She had approached NCLT as an operational creditor of her erstwhile employer, claiming ₹ 6.13 lakh from the company. The applicant claimed that she had worked for the company from February 2016 till she was forced to quit in August 2019.
The applicant also argued that the company had applied TDS to her salary but didn’t deposit it to the income tax department, and also failed to deposit the employer contribution of provident fund for the period August 2018 to August 2019.
“Under the waterfall mechanism, the employee and workmen get different treatment. The workmen’s dues for 24 months before the liquidation date and secured creditors are on the same footing,” said Ashish Pyasi, partner of law firm Aendri Legal.
Last month, lenders of bankrupt military-focused software exporter Rolta India decided to launch a fresh bidding process for the company.
Source: Economic Times