Bankruptcy Court Powers under 11 U.S.C. Sections 105(a) and (b)
(a) The court may issue any order, process, or judgment that is necessary or appropriate to carry out the provisions of this title. No provision of this title providing for the raising of an issue by a party in interest shall be construed to preclude the court from, sua sponte, taking any action or making any determination necessary or appropriate to enforce or implement court orders or rules, or to prevent an abuse of process. (b) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, a court may not appoint a receiver in a case under this title.
Section 105(a) and (b) above outline the powers of the bankruptcy court. The powers of the bankruptcy court, as with other federal courts, are largely delineated by statute. As one can see from the statute above, the powers of the bankruptcy court are quite broad, and the court may issue any order necessary to carry out any of the provisions of the bankruptcy code itself. This includes the Bankruptcy Court acting on its own initiative, even without a motion filed by the attorneys (sua sponte).
One particular power the Court does not have is the ability to appoint a receiver over the bankruptcy proceeding. This is logical, since the entire point of a reorganization proceeding is to allow the reorganization to be either overseen by the debtor-in-possession or the United States Trustee. There is no point to having a receiver run the debtor organization in such a circumstance. Additionally, the duty of the receiver is mainly to preserve the assets of the debtor for the duration of a litigation, rather than institute liquidation as in a Chapter 7. The functions of a receiver may overlap with those of the debtor-in-possession during a reorganization.
