Ia 1004/CN/2022 of Employees State Insurance Corporation v. Sri Lakshmi Srinivasa Jute Mills Pvt. Ltd.
Case brief
What is this about?
The Employees State Insurance Corporation appealed against approval of a resolution plan that treated its admitted ESI contribution claim as an ordinary government/operational creditor debt and allowed only 1% of the claim. The Tribunal held that ESI contributions, including amounts deducted from employees’ wages and required to be remitted under the ESI Act, are held in trust for statutory beneficiaries and are excluded from the liquidation estate under Section 36(4)(a)(i) of the IBC. Filing the claim in Form B did not alter that substantive character. The approval order was set aside insofar as it applied the ordinary operational-creditor waterfall treatment.
What did the court decide?
The impugned NCLT order was set aside to the extent it approved treatment of the ESI contributions as ordinary government/operational creditor dues and provided for payment of only 1% of the claim. The Resolution Professional and Successful Resolution Applicant must reconsider the treatment of contributions covered by Section 40(4) of the ESI Act read with Section 36(4)(a)(i) of the IBC.