Authority: National Company Law Tribunal, Kochi Bench (Shri Vinay Goel, Member (Judicial) and Shri Ravichandran Ramasamy, Member (Technical))

Order Date: 11 June 2026

Case Overview

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Kochi Bench heard a batch of applications filed by landowners under Section 424(2)(e) of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Rule 11 of the NCLT Rules, 2016. The applications are connected to the main insolvency case IBA/11/KOB/2020. The applicants (Samson T George and 2 others) sought relief against respondents (Joice Joseph through POA Berly Mathews and 2 others) regarding the authenticity of a sale agreement.

The landowners requested the Tribunal to: 1) Direct respondents to produce the original Agreement for Sale with all execution pages and records; 2) Order forensic examination of the document at a government or private laboratory; 3) Specify that the forensic examination should include signature verification, handwriting analysis, authorship determination, interpolation detection, insertion analysis, overwriting examination, stamp paper usage verification, sequence of execution analysis, and other forensic indicators; 4) Draw adverse inference against respondents if they fail to produce the original documents; and 5) Pass any other appropriate orders.

Proceedings and Directions

During the hearing, Mr. Akhil Suresh appeared physically for the applicants. Mr. Nipun Singhvi appeared virtually for homebuyers, Mr. Kevin Thomas appeared virtually along with the Liquidator/R3 Ms. Annie Abraham, and Mr. Anil Abey appeared virtually for the representative of M/s MIR Realtors Private Limited.

While applicants claimed they had served copies of the application, the Liquidator and MIR Realtors' representative stated they had not received them. The Tribunal directed the applicants' counsel to supply copies to both parties. The representative of M/s MIR Realtors Private Limited was directed to provide his email ID in the chat box.

Upon receipt of the applications, respondents were given 10 days (instead of the initially proposed 2 days) to file their reply affidavits, with copies to the other side. The extended timeline was granted at the request of counsel for homebuyers.

Final Outcome

The Tribunal adjourned all cases to 22 June 2026 for further hearing. The batch includes multiple applications numbered IA(IBC)/214/KOB/2026 through IA(IBC)/275/KOB/2026, all connected to the main insolvency proceeding IBA/11/KOB/2020.

Topics: Real Estate Dispute, Forensic Examination