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Judgment
ORDER
14.09.2022: I.A. No. 2957 of 2022 This is an application seeking condonation of 40 days delay in filing the appeal.
This appeal has been filed against the order dated 18.04.2022 passed in I.A. No. 969 of 2022 in CP (IB) 1615/MB/2017. The appeal against the said order has been filed by the Appellant on 24.06.2022.
In the application filed for condonation of delay, it has been submitted that the Appellant got to know about the order recently and uploaded in the last week of month of May, 2022 and certified copy of the same was issued on 19.06.2022, whereas para 6 of the application, it has been stated that the certified copy was applied on 08.06.2022 and copy of the order was issued on 09.06.2022.
When we looked into the certified copy which has been filed with the appeal, certified true copy was issued on 09.06.2022 as a free of cost copy.
Learned Counsel for the Liquidator submitted that the order dated 18.04.2022 was received by the Liquidator through her Counsel on 20.04.2022 and a free of cost copy was sent to the Liquidator on 02.05.2022. Hence, the ground taken in the application that it was uploaded in the last week of month of May, 2022 is not correct. It is further submitted that when the order was pronounced on 18.04.2022, the Appellant was present before the Adjudicating Authority which fact is not disputed by the Appellant. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in (2022)2 Supreme Court Cases 244 in V.Nagarajan Vs. SKS Ispat and Power Limited and Others in paragraph 35 has held:
“35.The appellant was present before NCLT on 31.12.2019 when Interim relief was denied and the miscellaneous application was dismissed. The appellant has demonstrated no effort on his part to secure a certified copy of the said order and has relied on the date of the uploading of the order (12.3.2020) on the website. The period of limitation for filing an appeal under Section 61(1) against the order of NCLT dated 31.12.2019, expired on 30.1.2020 in view of the thirty-day period prescribed under Section 61(2). Any scope for a condonation of delay expired on 14.2.2020, in view of the outer limit of fifteen days prescribed under the proviso to Section 61(2). The lockdown from 23.3.2020 on account of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the suo motu order of this Court has had no impact on the right of the appellant to institute an appeal in this proceeding and NCLAT has correctly dismissed the appeal on limitation. Accordingly, the present appeal under Section 62 IBC stands dismissed.”
In the present case, there is no case of the Appellant that within the period of limitation, a certified copy was applied. The appeal admittedly has been filed beyond 40 days from the date of the order and the power to condone the delay vested with this Tribunal being only 15 days u/s 61(2) of the Code, we are unable to condone the delay of 40 days, as prayed in the application. We, thus, are of the view that application for condonation of delay deserve to be rejected and hereby dismissed. Memo of appeal stands rejected.