National Company Law Appellate Tribunal: Dismissing a time-barred appeal, the Principal Bench of National Company Appellate Tribunal comprising of Ashok Bhushan, J. and Barun Mitra held that the power to condone the delay cannot be exercised exceeding 15 days.
The Appellant filed an appeal on 08-07-2022 against the order of National Company Law Tribunal, Cuttack Bench, Cuttack dated 13-05-2022. Relaying on the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in V. Nagarajan v. S.K.S. Ispat and Power Ltd., (2022) 2 SCC 244, the Applicant contented that the certified copy of the order was applied within the period of 30 days from the impugned order i.e. on 08-06-2022 and the same was supplied to the Appellant on 09-06-2022, thus under Section 61 of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 the period of limitation will start from 09-06-2022.
Rejecting the contention of the Appellant, the bench observed that in the present case, the Appellant applied for certified copy on 08-06-2022 and was supplied with the same on 09-06-2022, he was entitled for computing the limitation for the period of two days, even after the computing of two days, the Appeal was filed after the delay of more the 15 days, thus making is time-barred.
The bench observed that the period for Appeal is 30 days from the date of Order, under Section 61 (2) of the Code and the Appellant is entitled to exclude the period for which certified copy was under preparation.
“The Appellant is entitled to exclude the period for which certified copy was under preparation. Certified Copy was applied on 08th June, 2022 and delivered on 09th June, 2022 hence two days period is entitled to be excluded in computing the limitation.”
[Chhote Lal Gupta v. Jai Balaji Jyoti Steels Ltd., Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 955 of 2022, dated 10-08-2022]
*Ritu Singh, Editorial Assistant has put this report together.