The Chennai Bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal ( NCLAT ) held that the objective of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) is to ensure timely resolution of insolvency.
The appeal has been filed by the appellant against the impugned order on the file of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Kochi Bench. Along with the appeal and interlocutory applications (IA) have been filed.
The Respondent contended that the Impugned Order was pronounced by NCLT, Kochi Bench, that the application was listed for hearing on the same date at serial no.7 in the cause list, that the Appellant was present before NCLT and hence, he had notice of the same. He further states that since the Appellant has not applied for a Certified Copy of the Impugned Order till date, the period of limitation will start from 23.12.2022 as per the principles laid down in the decision of the Supreme Court, in the case of V. Nagarajan Vs. SKS Ispat & Power Ltd.
The appellant cited the judgment of the Supreme Court, in the matter of Sanjay Pandurang Kalate Vs. Vistra ITCL (India) & Ors, to state that this decision departs from the decision made in V. Nagarajan case and that the date of uploading of the judgement should be the crucial date and not the date of pronouncement of the judgement for the purpose of calculating the limitation period. The counsel has further stated that the delay to be condoned is within the outer limit of 15 days and is condonable in the light of the law laid down by the Apex Court in decisions in the matter of “Sanket Kumar Agarwal Vs APG Logistics Pvt. Ltd.”
A Three-Member Bench comprising Justice M. Venugopal, Member (Judicial), Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma, Member (Judicial) and Jatindranath Swain, Member (Technical) observed that “The Appellant has cited a number of decisions of the Supreme Court to support his plea that a liberal approach be adopted for condonation of delay even in matters arising under the IBC. In this matter, we have to say that the objective of IBC is to ensure timely resolution of insolvency and accordingly provisions have been put in place including strict timelines for the legal and administrative processes and therefore, adopting a liberal approach, needless to say, will defeat the objectives of the Code and will run counter to the view expressed in V. Nagarajan case and other similar cases.”
“In view of the above, this ‘Tribunal’, comes to the conclusion that the Appeal has been filed beyond the prescribed time limit as stipulated in section 61(2) of Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code 2016 and the Appellant has not demonstrated a ‘Sufficient Cause’ within the ambit of the said section to enable this ‘Tribunal’, to exercise its discretion to condone the delay not exceeding 15 days” the Tribunal held.
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