Miss Lucy
← All judgments

Aaacorp Exim India Private Limited vs Saraswat Co-Operative Bank Limited

National Company Law Appellate Tribunal27 March 2026

Ratio decidendi

The rule this decision rests on

An application by a financial creditor under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 may be amended to change the date of default and the date of declaration of the account as non-performing, where such amendment is not shown to be barred by law or limitation, and where the corporate debtor is given an opportunity to file a reply objecting to the amended dates before the Adjudicating Authority determines the petition. An objection to the dates of default and declaration of NPA is not foreclosed by the amendment itself, since the question whether default in fact occurred on the amended date is to be examined at the consideration of the main petition, and the corporate debtor's rights are protected by permitting it to contest those dates on merits in its reply.

Written by Miss Lucy from the judgment below, not taken from a headnote.

Judgment

As delivered

NATIONAL COMPANY LAW APPELLATE TRIBUNAL PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI Comp. App. (AT) (Ins) No. 528 of 2026 IN THE MATTER OF: AAACORP Exim India Pvt. Ltd. ...Appellant(s)

Versus

Saraswat Co-Operative Bank Ltd. & Anr ...Respondent(s)

Present: For Appellant : Mr. Pulkit Sharma, Advocate

For Respondents : Ms. Sonakshi Dhiman, Advocate for R2

ORDER

(Hybrid Mode)

27.03.2026 Heard Ld. Counsel for Appellant and Ld. Counsel appearing

for Respondent.

2. This Appeal has been filed against the order dated 05/02/2026, by

which I.A. No. 3713/2024, filed by the Respondent Bank has been allowed,

permitting the Appellant to amend the date of default and date declaration of

the NPA.

3. Ld. Counsel for Appellant submitted that the Application was filed by

the Bank and several opportunities were taken by the Bank to bring relevant

Reserve Bank of India inspection reports on records which records were never

brought on the record and it was submitted that without permission of the

RBI those inspection reports cannot be brought on record.

4. It is submitted that, when there was no document brought on record,

amendment ought not to have been allowed.

5. Ld. Counsel for Respondent, refuting the submission, submitted that

Appellant has been permitted to amend the date of default and opportunity has been given to the Respondent to object to the said date of default and

declaration of NPA and time has been given to file a Reply, hence no prejudice

is caused to the Appellant.

6. We have considered submissions of the Counsels for Parties and

perused the records.

7. Adjudicating Authority itself has referred to the judgement of the

Hon'ble Supreme Court in Dena Bank vs. C. Shivakumar Reddy [(2021) 10

SCC 330], which permits that Application by the Financial Creditor, under

Section 7 can be amended and additional documents can be filed.

8. The dates, which are sought to be amended, is not shown to be barred

by any law or by limitation.

9. In Paragraph 15 & 16, Adjudicating Authority made following

observations :

"15. While adjudicating the present application, it is not within the remit of this Tribunal, to determine whether the default in fact occurred on 05.11.2018 or not. Such issue shall be examined at the time of consideration of the main petition. The limited question that arises for determination presently is whether the date of default, the date of declaration of the account as NP A, and the amount of default as on the date of NPA, as stated in the main petition, are amenable to amendment.

16. As regards the contention of the Respondent that the date of declaration (of the Respondent's account as NPA) is stated as 30.09.2019 in the notice dated 31.10.2019 issued by the Applicant under Section 13(2) of the SARFAESI Act, it is observed that the date of NP A mentioned in a notice, is not germane for the purpose of deciding the present amendment application. The Respondent shall, in any event, be

2 of 3 afforded an opportunity to raise all such objections by filing its reply to the amended petition."

10. We further notice Paragraph 20, where Respondent were given two

weeks time after service of the amended petition to file Reply.

11. Ld. Counsel for Appellant submits that amended petition has not been

served.

12. In view of the above, we are of the view that rights of the Appellant are

fully protected to object on the merits the date of the default and date of

declaration of NPA by filing a Reply.

13. We thus do not find any error in the order of the Adjudicating Authority

allowing the financial creditor to amend the said dates, with subject to liberty

as granted as above.

14. Appeal is dismissed.

[Justice Ashok Bhushan] Chairperson

[Barun Mitra] Member (Technical) Prerana/md

3 of 3

This page reproduces a public judgment and a summary of it. It is research material, not legal advice, and it is no substitute for advice from an advocate on your own facts.

Research this judgment with Miss Lucy

Ask what it holds, what has followed it, and what it means for your matter — in plain English, with the citations.

Try Miss Lucy free