Passage Based Questions: Legal Aptitude - 2

Directions: Read the following extract and answer the questions.
Hours after India went into lockdown, the Finance Minister announced a slew of measures to alleviate the economic crisis. This included proposed changes to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, a law enacted to bring about smooth and quick resolutions for companies facing insolvency and bankruptcy with a view to primarily avoiding liquidation. The government, the Minister said, was considering suspension of certain provisions of the IBC which enabled creditors to file insolvency petitions against Indian companies for a year's time beyond 30 April. April 30 came and went without any announcement in this regard.
In mid-May, the Finance Minister announced that the government was planning to bring in an ordinance to suspend provisions enabling filing of fresh insolvency cases for a period of one year. This was followed by absolute silence on the modalities or mechanism of suspension of the provisions. Banks, financial institutions (FIs), and insolvency law practitioners had no idea where they stood with these announcements. Finally, on 5 June, the government promulgated an ordinance which inserted Section 10A in the IBC. The government said the ordinance was promulgated because the lockdown has caused business disruptions which may lead to default on debts pushing such companies into insolvency. Therefore, it felt that suspending Sections 7, 9 and 10 of the IBC would be the right course of action.
Towards that end, Section 10A provides that "no application for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process of a corporate debtor shall be filed for any default arising on or after 25th March, 2020 for a period of six months or such further period, not exceeding one year from this period, as may be notified in this behalf". This means that these provisions shall remain suspended from 25 March till 25 September, unless extended for another six months, which would extend the suspension up to 25 March, 2021.
However, the proviso to the section states that no application for insolvency resolution shall ever be filed against a corporate debtor for any default occurring during the suspension period. While the main Section 10A suspends such applications for a limited period, the proviso enlarges the scope to provide complete amnesty under the IBC for any default occurring during such period. The role of a proviso in a statute is to restrict the application of the main provision under exceptional circumstances. However, the proviso expands the substantive provision in the main section. Further, if the main provision is unclear, a proviso may be given to explain its true meaning. In this case the main provision appears clear, only to be obfuscated by the proviso. The proviso therefore does not appear to be legally tenable. As creditors can still approach courts, and as banks/FIs can still approach Debt Recovery Tribunals, the protection given by this proviso seems illusory.