The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Board/IBBI) has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from Insolvency Professionals to be in the Panel under Insolvency Professionals to act as Interim Resolution Professionals or Liquidators (Recommendation) Guidelines, 2018.
In terms of the aforesaid guidelines, the Board shall prepare a Panel of Insolvency Professionals (IPs) for appointment as Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) or Liquidator and share the said Panel with Adjudicating Authority (AA).
The duly filled in and signed scanned copy of the Form A-Form A (EOI to Act as an IRP/Liquidator of a CIRP/Liquidation) is required to be sent at the designated e-mail i.e. ra.irp@ibbi.gov.in on or before 15th June 2018. EOIs received after due date will be summarily rejected. Furnishing wrong information would attract disciplinary action.
As per the Guidelines, since every IP is equally qualified to be appointed as the IRP/Liquidator of any CIRP/Liquidation, if otherwise not disqualified and in the interest of avoiding administrative delays, it is necessary to have guidelines to prepare a Panel of IPs for the purpose of section 16(4) and 34(6) from amongst the registered IPs.
The Board will prepare a Panel of IPs for appointment as IRP or Liquidator and share the said Panel with AA. The AA may pick up any name from the Panel for appointment of IRP or Liquidator for a CIRP or Liquidation, as the case may be. The Panel will have Bench wise list of IPs based on the registered office of the IP. It will have a validity of six months and a new Panel will replace the earlier Panel every six months. For example, the first Panel will be valid for appointments during July – December, 2018, the next panel will be valid for January June 2019, and so on.
An IP will be eligible to be in the Panel of IPs if –
(a) there is no disciplinary proceeding pending against him;
(b) he has not been convicted at any time in the last three years by a court of competent jurisdiction; and
(c) he expresses his interest to be included in the Panel for the relevant period
An IP will be included in the Panel against the Bench under whose jurisdiction his registered office (his address as registered with the Board) is located. For example, an IP located in Kolkata will be included in Panel against the Kolkata Bench of the AA.
The Board shall invite expression of interest from IPs in Form A to act as an IRP or Liquidator by sending an e-mail to IPs at their email addresses registered with the Board. The expression of interest must be received by the Board in Form A by the specified date. For example, the Board shall invite expression of interest by 7 th June, 2018 from IPs for inclusion in the Panel for July – December, 2018. The interested IPs may express their interest by 15th June, 2018. The Board will send the Panel to the AA by 25th June, 2018.
It must be explicitly understood that an IP, who is included in the Panel based on his expression of interest, must not:
(a) refuse to act as IRP or Liquidator, if appointed by the AA;
(b) withdraw his interest to act as IRP / Liquidator; and
(c) surrender his registration during the validity of the Panel.
It must be explicitly understood that the AA may require the Board to recommend an IP from or outside the Panel and in such cases, the Board shall recommend an IP.
Ongoing Assignments-The eligible IPs will be included in the Panel in order of the volume of ongoing processes they have in hand. The IP who has the lowest volume of ongoing processes will get a score of 100 and will be at the top of the Panel. The IP who has the highest volume of ongoing processes will get a score of 0. The difference between the highest volume and the lowest volume will be equated to 100 and other IPs will get scores between 0 and 100 depending on volume of their ongoing assignments.
An ongoing assignment shall be valued on a score of 31 volume and where two or more IPs get the same score, they will be placed in the Panel in order of the date of their registration with the Board. The IP registered earlier will be placed above the IP registered later.
The above process will be undertaken by a team of officers of the Board, as may be identified by a Whole-Time Member.
