No. While your tenant company is in the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP), section 14(1)(d) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 bars "the recovery of any property by an owner or lessor where such property is occupied by or in the possession of the corporate debtor", and on 6 April 2026 the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) held in Sudha Apparels Ltd v the Future Lifestyle resolution professional (CA(AT)(Ins) 2026/2024), a ruling under appeal to the Supreme Court with no stay, that the bar applies even where the landlord terminated the lease first. Your remedy is money: rent from the insolvency commencement date can rank as a process cost under regulation 31(b) of the CIRP Regulations, and the earlier arrears are a claim with a short deadline.
Part of the corporate and commercial law practice at S Jain & Attorneys, Bangalore.
This guide is for an individual owner of a shop, office or warehouse in Bengaluru whose tenant company has been admitted into CIRP by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and stays without paying. A supplier's claim mechanics are in our guide on filing a claim when a customer company enters CIRP, and the eviction route after the moratorium in our guide to tenant eviction in Karnataka.
| What you want to do | What the Code says during the moratorium | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Change the locks or cut the power | Barred by section 14(1)(d). Breach invites a section 67B(2) penalty | Write to the resolution professional in the first week |
| Sue for eviction or execute a decree | Barred by section 14(1)(a) and (d). Limitation is paused by section 60(6) | Diary the end of the moratorium under section 14(4) |
| Collect rent after admission | A process cost under regulation 31(b), paid first under section 53(1)(a) | Get the committee's approval under regulation 31B in writing |
| Recover the arrears or adjust the deposit | A Form B claim at the section 53(1)(f) rank, with set-off limited (Supreme Court, 3 January 2024) | File by the announcement date and disclose the deposit in entry 8 |
Three facts decide what follows.
Occupation on the admission date
The bar protects premises the company physically occupied when the CIRP began, even if the lease had ended before that date.
Rent becomes a process cost
Regulation 31(b) treats amounts due to a person affected by the section 14(1)(d) moratorium as process costs, paid before all creditors.
Arrears are a claim
Rent unpaid before admission is an operational debt, filed in Form B by the date in the public announcement, at the section 53 rank.
Can I lock the shop or file for eviction while the moratorium runs?
No. From the insolvency commencement date section 14(1) of the Code prohibits suits and proceedings against the company, "including execution of any judgement, decree or order", and the recovery of any property it occupies, and section 238 gives the Code effect over any inconsistent law. An eviction petition, execution of a decree you hold, and self-help such as changing the locks all fall within those words. Since 26 May 2026 the sanction is civil: section 67B(2), which replaced section 74, lets the NCLT, on the IBBI's or the Central Government's application, fine anyone who authorised or permitted a creditor's breach of section 14 from one lakh to two crore rupees. In Sudha Apparels the professional alleged exactly that, a blocked electricity reconnection, which the judgment records without deciding.
Under section 14(4) the moratorium runs until the process is completed, and its proviso ends it on the day the NCLT approves a resolution plan or orders liquidation. Section 60(6) excludes the moratorium period from limitation.
Key takeaway. The moratorium protects the company's physical occupation, not a right to stay rent-free. Your remedy during the process is money, not possession.
The lease was terminated or had expired before the CIRP began: does the bar still apply?
Yes, if the company was still in physical occupation on the insolvency commencement date. In Sudha Apparels a Kolkata mall store had paid no rent since February 2022. The landlord terminated the lease on 14 April 2023 and the company was admitted on 4 May 2023. The NCLAT still held that section 14(1)(d) "is absolute and covers property which is in possession of the Corporate Debtor", that regulation 31(b) confirms this by treating the lessor's dues as process costs, and that "even the termination notice was delivered before the initiation of CIRP, Section 14(1)(d) would still apply". The judgment is under challenge in the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal 7999/2026, listed next on 17 November 2026, with no stay in the orders we have read.
Two NCLT Ahmedabad orders follow it. In the insolvency of JCR Fashion Retail Pvt Ltd (IA 1293(AHM)2026, 21 September 2026) a registered licence had expired on 18 December 2025, the company was admitted on 10 March 2026, and the bench held that "such expiry by itself does not permit recovery of possession during the subsistence of moratorium". In Eldeco Infrastructure and Properties Ltd v NPV Insolvency Professionals Pvt Ltd (IA 1595(AHM)2026, 29 September 2026) a leave and licence terminated in April 2025 gave no right to possession after admission on 16 January 2026. The line is occupation on the admission date: a company put out years earlier, as in Neesa Leisure Ltd v Rajasthan State Industrial and Investment Corporation (NCLAT, 7 December 2022), gets no protection. A notice served after admission is a question the NCLAT did not decide. Our reading is that a notice demanding the rent and reserving your rights, without any step to retake the premises, is the safer course.
Common mistake. Treating an expired or terminated lease as the end of the moratorium's protection. The orders protect the occupation that existed on the admission date.
Who pays the rent from the admission date, and how do I get it treated as a CIRP cost?
The company does, through the resolution professional, and that rent ranks first. Regulation 31(b) of the CIRP Regulations, made under section 5(13)(e), specifies "amounts due to a person whose rights are prejudicially affected on account of the moratorium imposed under section 14(1)(d)". Section 30(2)(a) makes every plan pay those costs in priority. The NCLAT Chennai bench applied this in the Vasan Health Care insolvency (CA(AT)(CH)(Ins) 37/2022, 11 March 2022), upholding an order that the resolution professional pay Rs 1,17,28,159 of rent within fourteen days from the process costs and monthly rent while the company occupied the premises.
The rank is only worth what the committee of creditors approves. Regulation 31B, substituted from 9 June 2026, puts every process cost before the committee, at its first meeting and thereafter for prior approval. In Sudha Apparels the professional wrote on 15 June 2023 that the dues would be treated as insolvency cost, yet by 2025 the committee had declined to fund the store and, the landlord told the NCLAT, nothing ensured payment. And in the Deltronix India liquidation (NCLAT, CA(AT)(Ins) 1095/2023, 29 October 2024) a landlord unpaid since 2014 got post-admission rent only as an operational debt: his rent had stopped years before the CIRP and his award was already in execution, so the NCLAT held the moratorium had not prejudiced him, no business was run from the premises, and the professional had never accepted the rent as a cost. Expect that argument where the rent stopped before admission, although Sudha Apparels read regulation 31(b) as covering rent unpaid since February 2022.
So write in the first week: the company occupies the premises, rent from the commencement date is a process cost under regulation 31(b), please record it and place it before the committee, and does the company need the premises. The moratorium stops you recovering the property, not the professional surrendering premises the company cannot afford: sixteen stores were vacated in the Kolkata mall case. If the rent is not confirmed or paid, apply to the NCLT, which has jurisdiction under section 60(5), before the plan is approved, as the Vasan Health Care landlords did.
Deadline warning. A process cost that is not in the committee's minutes before the plan is voted is an argument, not a payment. Record the rent in the first week.
What about the arrears from before admission: which form, by when, and where do I rank?
Rent unpaid before the insolvency commencement date is a claim, filed in Form B as an operational creditor by the last date in the public announcement. Section 5(21) defines operational debt as a claim "in respect of the provision of goods or services", and a five-member bench of the NCLAT held in Jaipur Trade Expocentre Pvt Ltd v Metro Jet Airways Training Pvt Ltd (CA(AT)(Ins) 423/2021, 5 July 2022) that licence fee for premises used for business is an operational debt, overruling its earlier contrary view. In Sudha Apparels the landlord filed Form B and the professional admitted Rs 10,00,39,996 of the Rs 11,69,64,411 claimed.
Form B is the format notified under regulation 7 by the IBBI circular of 2 June 2026, and the deadlines are in the vendor guide. What is specific to a landlord is the proof: the registered lease or licence, the rent schedule, the invoices and ledger, the demand and termination notices with proof of service, and the GST returns if you charged GST on the rent. Interest to the commencement date goes in too, and entry 8 must disclose the deposit you hold. Your rank is section 53(1)(f), so the plan pays you the section 30(2)(b) floor or what the committee agrees above it, and once approved it binds every creditor under section 31(1).
What happens to the security deposit I am holding?
It stays with you until the premises come back, and whether you may adjust the arrears against it depends on your lease. Section 25(2)(a) lets the professional call it in. In Bharti Airtel Ltd v the Aircel resolution professional (2024 INSC 15, 3 January 2024) the Supreme Court held that neither statutory set-off nor the insolvency set-off of the Liquidation Regulations applies in a CIRP, subject to a contractual set-off effective before or on the commencement date and a transactional set-off between closely connected claims. A lease clause that lets you deduct unpaid rent from the deposit is a contractual set-off, and the rent and the deposit arise from the same lease. Our reading is that adjusting the pre-admission arrears falls within those exceptions, but no order we have found applies the judgment to a lease deposit, so disclose the adjustment in entry 8 and claim the net figure.
Do not refund the deposit while the company sits in the premises, and do not let it become the reason to stay. In Mack Star Marketing Pvt Ltd v the Jet Airways resolution professional (NCLAT, CA(AT)(Ins) 389/2021, 6 May 2022) the professional refused to vacate until the deposit was refunded. The NCLAT called that "placing the cart before the horse", directed handover within fifteen days with the refund to follow, and found that the licence fee during the CIRP should have been a process cost, though the plan had already been approved and its corrected order of 30 May 2022 left the landlord to pursue it under the plan. In liquidation, regulation 29 of the Liquidation Regulations sets off mutual dealings to a net sum.
What changes if the company goes into liquidation?
The lessor's bar falls away, your premises never become part of what the liquidator sells, and your claim carries forward. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2026, in force from 26 May 2026 under S.O. 2625(E), omitted section 33(5) and instead has the liquidation order declare a moratorium for the purposes of clauses (a) and (c) of section 14(1) only, so the lessor's bar in clause (d) is not carried over. Section 36(4)(a)(iv) keeps out of the liquidation estate third-party assets held under "contractual arrangements which do not stipulate transfer of title but only use of the assets", which describes a lease, so the liquidator cannot sell or assign your premises, though section 35(1)(e) lets him carry on the business for a time.
Because a suit against the company is still barred, our reading is that the forum for a liquidator who will not hand over is the NCLT under section 60(5), a jurisdiction the NCLAT upheld over possession and rent questions in the Doshion liquidation (CA(AT)(Ins) 1730/2025, 7 January 2026), there in the liquidator's favour. Write first, then apply if he refuses. For a liquidation ordered after 26 May 2026, sections 38 to 42 are gone: a claim verified in the CIRP carries forward without re-verification under regulation 30(2), and a landlord who never filed has fourteen days from the liquidation commencement date under regulation 16(1). More is in our guide on what happens when a CIRP ends in liquidation. The Kolkata mall case ended this way: on 9 July 2026 the NCLT Mumbai ordered Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd into liquidation, and the moratorium ceased that day.
Step by step: the landlord's first month after the admission order
- Get the admission order and the public announcement. Note the insolvency commencement date, the professional's email and the last date for claims, fourteen days from his appointment.
- Do nothing to the premises: no new locks, no cut utilities, no removal of goods. Photograph their state.
- Write to the professional within the week, in the terms set out under the rent heading above.
- File Form B for the arrears by the last date, with the lease, invoices, ledger, notices and GST extracts, disclosing the deposit in entry 8.
- After the first committee meeting, ask for its decision on your rent. If it is not confirmed or paid, apply under section 60(5) before the plan is voted.
- If the company does not need the premises, agree a handover date and a joint inspection before settling the deposit.
- Diary the end of the moratorium and be ready to demand possession the next day.
What we see go wrong for landlords
In our practice the first loss is self-inflicted: a landlord changes the locks or stops the power, hands the professional a section 67B contravention to report, and spends a year defending it. The second is silence: an assurance that rent "will be treated as CIRP cost" is worth nothing until the committee's minutes say so, and the landlord who waits finds, as in Mack Star, that the plan has been approved without him. The third is the deposit refunded on demand while the company still occupies, and the fourth is never asking for surrender. A documented Form B costs little. As an indicative range and never a tariff, a contested section 60(5) application runs to a few tens of thousands of rupees at the Bengaluru bench, and more if it reaches the NCLAT.
Four figures from the orders worth keeping in view.
Termination three weeks early
In the Kolkata mall case the lease was terminated on 14 April 2023 and the company admitted on 4 May 2023. The bar still applied, because the store was occupied.
Rs 1.17 crore from costs
The NCLAT Chennai upheld an order that the resolution professional pay Rs 1,17,28,159 of rent within fourteen days from the process costs, plus monthly rent while occupation continued.
Fifty percent, subject to funds
In the JCR Fashion Retail matter the committee approved up to half the contractual rent, subject to availability of funds, and the Rs 41.60 lakh claim went for verification.
Fourteen days in liquidation
A landlord who never filed in the CIRP has fourteen days from the liquidation commencement date under regulation 16(1), while a verified claim is carried forward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I serve a termination notice now that the company is in CIRP?
You can serve a notice that demands the rent and reserves your rights, and our reading is that this is the safer form. It will not entitle you to retake the premises before the moratorium ends, and the NCLT in the Sudha Apparels matter remarked against unilateral termination during the moratorium, a point the NCLAT did not decide.
The resolution professional says the rent is a CIRP cost but pays nothing. What now?
Ask for the committee's decision under regulation 31B in writing. If there is none, or payment still does not come, apply to the NCLT, as the landlords in the Vasan Health Care insolvency did, invoking its section 60(5) jurisdiction, and do it before the resolution plan is voted on.
My tenant holds the premises under a leave and licence, not a lease. Does the moratorium still apply?
Yes. Section 14(1)(d) speaks of property "occupied by or in the possession of the corporate debtor", and the Eldeco order of September 2026 applied it to a terminated leave and licence. The NCLAT's five-member bench treated licence fee as an operational debt, so the arrears are filed the same way.
The company has shut the shop and is not trading from my premises. Can I get them back now?
Not while its goods and fixtures remain there, because that is occupation. Ask the resolution professional to surrender premises the company does not need, a decision for the committee rather than a tribunal order, and point out that under regulation 31B the committee must approve every cost of keeping them. In the Deltronix case rent for premises not used for the business was treated as an ordinary claim, which is the committee's own reason to let go.
Will the resolution plan pay my arrears in full?
Rarely. As an operational creditor you rank under section 53(1)(f), and the plan must pay you not less than the floor in section 30(2)(b), which is often a fraction of the claim. The rent for the period after admission is different, because process costs are paid in full and in priority.
Can I pursue the director who guaranteed the rent, or the cheques that bounced?
The guarantor, yes: section 14(3)(b) takes a surety out of the moratorium. What happens to bounced cheques is in our guide on claims in a customer's CIRP. Anything you recover must be updated in your claim.
Does the moratorium stop my eviction suit that was already pending?
Yes. Section 14(1)(a) stops the continuation of pending suits and the execution of any decree, and section 60(6) excludes the moratorium period from limitation, so the suit resumes where it stood when the moratorium ends.
How long will the moratorium last?
Until the NCLT approves a resolution plan or orders liquidation. The statutory process is one hundred and eighty days, extendable once by ninety, with an outer limit of three hundred and thirty days under section 12, but in practice it runs longer, and the Kolkata mall case ran from admission in May 2023 to liquidation in July 2026.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified advocate for advice on your specific situation.
Related Guides
- The Company That Owes Me Money Has Gone Into CIRP: How Do I File My Claim and What Will I Actually Get?
- The Builder's CIRP Has Failed and Liquidation Is Ordered: What Happens to My Flat and My Claim After the 2026 Amendments?
- Tenant Eviction in Karnataka: Grounds, Procedure and the Rent Act Explained
