The Supreme Court's first substantive ruling on the architecture of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016. A 2-judge bench held that the IBC, enacted under Entry 9 of List III, prevails over inconsistent State moratoria through *Section 238* read with Article 254; the *Section 7* admission enquiry is narrow — confined to whether a financial debt and default exist — and once those facts are made out the National Company Law Tribunal must admit, with no residual 'I deem fit' discretion. The decision framed the post-2016 'paradigm shift' away from debtor-in-possession, was diluted by *Vidarbha* in 2022, and was substantially restored by *M. Suresh Kumar Reddy* in 2023.