Collation of Claims explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.
Four decisions define what a resolution professional must do about claims. The books of account come first, a late claim is not automatically bad, but a claim arriving after the committee has approved a plan comes too late.
Start from the books — SBI v. ARGL Ltd.
The Tribunal held that a resolution professional's duty of collation of claims under section 21 is not limited strictly to those manually filed by creditors. The reasoning is that the books of accounts serve as the foundational record of debt, so an IRP or RP must first identify liabilities from those accounts before inviting claims, in order that official financial records remain meaningful.
The consequence: a genuine claim reflected in the company's books cannot be ignored or invalidated simply because no formal proof of claim was filed. The filing process exists to resolve discrepancies, not to serve as the sole basis for recognising a debt.
Verify properly — the electricity duty case
In Office of the Collector of Electricity Duty v. Raj Kumar Poddar, RP of Vadraj Energy (Gujarat) Ltd. (NCLT Ahmedabad, 2 August 2021), the RP had rejected a statutory claim for electricity duty. The Tribunal found the RP had misinterpreted section 4(1) of the Gujarat Electricity Duty Act, 1958, and that section 4(2) or 4(5) applied to verifying the dues.
It allowed the application, directed the RP to admit the claim after proper verification, and imposed a personal penalty of Rs. 50,000 on the RP for the erroneous interpretation and lack of due diligence.
Read together, these two decisions describe the same obligation from opposite directions. The RP must find claims the creditors did not file, and must not reject claims the creditors did file without understanding the law they arise under.
The Rs. 50,000 personal penalty is the point to take away. Collation of claims is an exercise of professional judgement for which the resolution professional is personally answerable — a wrong reading of the statute behind a claim is not a neutral error.
Delay alone is not fatal — Edelweiss v. Adel Landmarks
The NCLT Principal Bench clarified that the 90th day deadline for submitting claims under Regulation 12(2) is directory rather than mandatory, and that resolution professionals cannot reject claims solely due to delay. Procedural timelines should not override the substantive rights of creditors — a point of particular weight in real estate cases involving many homebuyers — and RPs were directed to accept belated claims for a fair resolution process.
But there is an end point — Mukul Kumar v. RPS Infrastructure
The NCLAT set aside the NCLT's order including a claim filed 237 days late, holding that accepting claims after CoC approval would "set the clock back" and cause indefinite delays contrary to the Code's preamble. It further held:
- the claimant's plea of ignorance was rejected — a public announcement under Regulation 6 constitutes sufficient notice, without any need for personal service; and
- the resolution professional was exonerated, having made sincere efforts and even filed a section 19 application to compel the ex-management to provide records.
The onus of vigilance, the Tribunal said, remains on the creditor.
Reconciling the two
Collation of claims therefore has a beginning and an end, and the two decisions mark each:
| Stage the claim arrives | Position |
|---|---|
| After 90 days, while the process is running | Directory — cannot be rejected for delay alone (Adel Landmarks) |
| Reflected in the books, never formally filed | Must be identified and collated by the RP (SBI v. ARGL) |
| After the CoC has approved the resolution plan | Too late — would set the clock back (RPS Infrastructure) |
The organising idea is not the number of days but whether admitting the claim would disturb a decision already taken. Before approval, the pool can still absorb a new claim. After it, the commercial arithmetic the committee voted on would have to be reopened.
Practical points for a resolution professional
Four habits make the collation of claims defensible:
- Reconstruct the liability list from the books first; treat the filed claims as a reconciliation against it.
- Where records are withheld, file a section 19 application — it is what exonerated the RP in RPS Infrastructure.
- Do not reject a late claim on delay alone while the process is live.
- Verify statutory claims against the right provision of the governing Act before rejecting them.
Common mistakes
- Treating the claims received as the complete list of liabilities.
- Rejecting a claim under Regulation 12(2) purely because it is out of time.
- Reopening the claims list after the committee has approved a plan.
- Assuming a creditor is entitled to personal notice beyond the public announcement.