Valuing a Debtor Whose 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.
The resolution professional is legally entitled to the corporate debtor's records. The Enforcement Directorate has them, and releasing anything requires the agency's own verification process to run its course.
That can take months. The forty-seven day valuation clock does not pause while it does.
The statutory deadline does not move. Reconstruct from historical filings, regulatory submissions, creditor records and third-party confirmations; document every access attempt on the day; and disclose the limitation in the report, naming what could not be verified and what it does to the number.
Why access takes so long
Agencies do not release seized material simply because another statutory officer asks. They run their own checks, and the release competes with an active investigation.
Meanwhile the RP has obligations that assume the records exist: appointing valuers by day 47, collating claims, preparing the information memorandum, running the process against the overall CIRP timeline. The valuation timeline →
The mistake is to wait. Waiting produces a missed deadline and no data.
Where the data actually is
More survives outside the company than practitioners expect:
Regulatory filings. Annual accounts and returns filed with the ROC, GST returns, income-tax returns and assessment orders, PF and ESI filings. These give revenue, asset schedules, employee numbers and statutory positions.
Creditor records. Banks hold statements, sanction letters, security documents, stock statements and drawing-power calculations. Lenders in the CoC have every incentive to supply them.
Counterparty confirmations. Customers and suppliers can confirm balances and contract terms independently of the debtor's books.
Public registries. ROC charge searches, sub-registrar records, RERA filings, trademark and patent registries, litigation records.
Physical verification. The assets are still there even when the paperwork is not, which makes the site visit more important here, not less. Why desk valuation fails →
Prior professional work. Earlier audit reports, valuation reports, technical assessments and lender due diligence often survive with the people who prepared them.
Documenting the obstruction
This is what protects the RP and the valuer, and it has to be contemporaneous:
- each request to the agency, dated, with the reference;
- each response or absence of one;
- escalations — to the agency, the CoC, or the Adjudicating Authority;
- what was obtained and when;
- what remains outstanding at the date of the report;
- the revised plan and its execution.
A dated file built as events happen is a defence. An explanation assembled nine months later at a hearing is a reconstruction, and it reads like one. Regulation 27 →
What the valuation report must say
Silence about a limitation is the defect. Disclosure is the discipline:
- which assets or records could not be verified, specifically;
- the reason — seized, sealed, inaccessible;
- the alternative sources relied on instead;
- the assumptions made in the absence of primary data, and their basis;
- the effect on the estimate — direction and, where possible, magnitude;
- sensitivity on the assumptions that matter most.
A valuation that discloses its limitations and reasons around them is usable. One that presents a confident figure built on absent data is not, and it fails at the first challenge. Assumptions and sensitivity →
Building assumptions without primary data
Where data is genuinely unavailable, assumptions get constructed rather than observed — from industry benchmarks, sector recovery rates, comparable transactions and professional judgment.
That is legitimate. What makes it defensible is stating that this is what was done, and why the benchmark chosen is appropriate to this debtor. Professional judgment presented as observed data is the problem; professional judgment labelled as judgment is not. Judicial scrutiny →
Key takeaways
- The deadline does not pause for an agency's process.
- Do not wait. Waiting loses both the deadline and the data.
- Most of the data exists outside the company — filings, lenders, registries, counterparties.
- Physical verification matters more, not less, when records are gone.
- Document every attempt on the day it happens.
- Name the unverified items in the report and state the effect.
- Label constructed assumptions as constructed.
Read next
- CIRP Valuation Timeline: Regulation 27 and 35 Step by Step
- Physical Site Inspection: Why Desk Valuation Fails Under IBC
- Assumptions and Sensitivity Analysis in a Valuation Report
- When Workers Block Access: Asset Verification in CIRP
Disclaimer: Positions stated as on 5 September 2026. General guidance only — take advice where an agency holds records in a specific case.