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Judgment
O R D E R
This order shall be dispose of I.A. No. 1009 of 2023 through which the appellant has prayed for condonation of delay of 294 days. The present appeal has been filed under Section 421 of the Companies Act, 2013. Section 421 is reproduced as under:
Section 421: Appeal from orders of Tribunal.
“421. (1) Any person aggrieved by an order of the Tribunal may prefer an appeal to the Appellate Tribunal.
(2)No appeal shall lie to the Appellate Tribunal from an order made by the Tribunal with the consent of parties.
(3)Every appeal under sub-section (1) shall be filed within a period of forty-five days from the date on which a copy of the order of the Tribunal is made available to the person aggrieved and shall be in such form, and accompanied by such fees, as may be prescribed:
Provided that the Appellate Tribunal may entertain an appeal after the expiry of the said period of forty-five days from the date aforesaid, but within a further period not exceeding forty-five days, if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from filing the appeal within that period.
(4)On the receipt of an appeal under sub-section (1), the Appellate Tribunal shall, after giving the parties to the appeal a reasonable opportunity of being heard, pass such orders thereon as it thinks fit, confirming, modifying or setting aside the order appealed against.
(5)The Appellate Tribunal shall send a copy of every order made by it to the Tribunal and the parties to appeal”.
As per the scheme of Section 421 any person who is aggrieved by order of the tribunal may prefer an appeal to the Appellate Authority but every such appeal has to be filed within a period of 45 days from the date on which copy of the order of the Tribunal is made available to the person aggrieved and shall be in such form and accompanied by such fees as may be prescribed. Proviso to Section 421 (3) further extends the period of 45 days to file the appeal if the tribunal is satisfied that it was prevented by sufficient cause in not filing the appeal within that period. Meaning thereby the total period granted by the statute is 45+45 days for the purpose of filing of appeal. In this case, the impugned order was passed on 16.03.2022. Period of 45 days for filing of the appeal expired on 30.04.2022 and further period of 45 days expired on 15.06.2022. Whereas in the present case even the certified copy was applied by the appellant on 22.12.2022 much after the expiry of the period of 90 days as stated herein above.
In such circumstances and following the dictum of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of ‘National Spot Exchange vs. Mr. Anil Kohli RP for Dunar Foods Limited’ in SCC Online SC 716, 2021 this court does not enjoy the jurisdiction to condone the delay beyond the period of 45 days in any case. The application is thus found to be without any merit as the same is not maintainable and hence the same is hereby dismissed.
Company Appeal (AT) (CH) No. 75 of 2023
Since we have dismissed the application of condonation of delay by an order of even date, therefore, the present appeal is not found duly constituted as the same is hereby dismissed. No costs.