IRP (Insolvency Resolution Professional)

IBC, 2016 — Sections 16–22

An insolvency professional appointed by the NCLT upon admission of a CIRP petition to manage the corporate debtor's affairs during the resolution process. The IRP constitutes the Committee of Creditors (CoC), manages the affairs of the corporate debtor as a going concern, invites expressions of interest for resolution plans, and facilitates the CoC's decision-making.

In practice, this is the professional who runs the corporate debtor as a going concern through the resolution process under Sections 16-22 of the IBC, 2016 — keeping the lights on, preserving value, constituting and servicing the Committee of Creditors, and inviting expressions of interest for resolution plans. For a creditor, the IRP is both gatekeeper and counterparty: the IRP verifies claims, sets voting shares, and manages the data room that resolution applicants rely on, so the quality of that conduct directly shapes how much value survives to be distributed. Counsel watch for an IRP who fails to preserve assets, runs an opaque process, or mis-collates the CoC, because those defects become grounds to challenge before the NCLT. Equally, a creditor that does not engage with CoC meetings forfeits influence over the plan. The roles of IRP and the later-appointed resolution professional are often conflated; parties keep the distinct functions clear when engaging during CIRP.