This article suggests a hierarchical framework for debt classification under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (IBC) wherein company law constraints function as threshold gatekeepers that determine whether a legally enforceable debt can arise at all, while substance-over-from analysis is put to a secondary role assessing the character of obligations that have already crystallised in law.

The Supreme Court's ruling in EPCC v. Matix Fertilisers upholds the integrity of corporate capital law within the IBC framework by restating the crucial differentiation between creditor debt and shareholder investment.