The Aurangabad High Court has directed Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to immediately de-seal 6 towers of Reliance Infratel Limited. The Corporation had sealed the towers for non-payment of dues.
However, Rameshwar Totala and Rahul Totala, legal advocates representing the company had argued that since Reliance Infratel was undergoing a debt resolution process under Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016, the corporation could not ask for dues at present.
The lawyers pointed out to the court that Reliance Infratel is presently being run by Anish Nanavaty, Resolution Professional and the resolution plan submitted by Reliance Digital Platform & Project Services Limited has been approved by the Committee of Creditors and also subsequently approved by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
Totala also informed the court that the monitoring committee has deposited ₹1.18 crores with the corporation towards the current period dues.
Sambhaji Tope, the advocate representing the Corporation in High Court argued that the Corporation was not supposed to lodge claims through NCLT because the dues were statutory in nature.
Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice S. D. Kulkarni said that the issue of whether the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation can claim dues from a company undergoing debt resolution process will be decided later. However, they restrained the Corporation from taking coercive steps against the company till next hearing on March 18.