News

The NCLAT, Principal Bench, New Delhi in L & L Partners Litigation v. Jalesh Kumar Grover (RP) [Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 1944 of 2025] dismissed an appeal challenging the rejection of a law firm’s claim in the CIRP of Grandstar Realty Pvt. Ltd. The Tribunal upheld the adjudicating authority’s refusal to condone the delay in filing the claim, noting that the resolution plan had already been approved by the Committee of Creditors well before the claim was filed, and that a commercial legal firm cannot be placed on the same footing as homebuyers in a residential unit. Further, since the firm’s allotment of flats was in lieu of legal fees and no actual disbursement was made by the firm in favour of the corporate debtor, the claim did not satisfy the essential element of disbursal against consideration for the time value of money, and therefore did not qualify as a financial debt under Section 5(8) of the IBC.