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Judgment
ORDER
20.07.2022: This Appeal is directed against the Order dated 04.02.2022 which has been filed along with an application bearing No. 493/ 2022 for seeking ‘Condonation of Delay’ of 11 days in filing of the Appeal. Counsel for the Appellant has submitted that the Impugned Order was passed on 4th February, 2022 and the Limitation of 30 days to file the Appeal was to expire on 06.03.2022.
In view of the Order dated 10.01.2022 of the Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 10th January, 2022 in (Suo Moto Writ Petition Civil No. 3/2020) the period of limitation for any suit, appeal, application or proceeding was ordered to be excluded from 15th March, 2020 till 28.02.2022. Thus, the Limitation had started from 1st March, 2022. It is submitted that if 30 days is to be counted from 1st March, 2022, then it will expire on 30th March, 2022 whereas the appeal has been filed on 8th April, 2022 and in this process, it is alleged that 11 days delay has occurred. Counsel for the Appellant has submitted that despite the fact that the period of 30 days, has expired, a further period of 15 days can be extended in view of Section 61 (2) by this tribunal.
It is submitted that the reason for not filing the appeal even after 30 days is because the partner of the firm who was to file the appeal was not well.
We have heard Learned Counsel for the Appellant and perused the record much less the averments made in the Application for ‘Condonation of Delay’.
The Present Appeal has been filed against the Order by which cost of Rs. 2 Lakh has been imposed upon the Appellant for frivolous averments in the application filed under Section 9 of the IBC. We are not going into the merits of the case, because we are only to look into the fact as to whether there exist sufficient reason for condoning the delay of 11 days after expiry of the statutory period of 30 days.
The Impugned Order was passed on 04.02.2022 and the limitation to file the appeal was up to 30.03.2022. No effort was made by the Appellant to file the appeal during that period. The Appellant has taken the advantage of the Order dated 10.01.2022 passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in (Suo Moto Writ Petition Civil No. 3/2020) by which the period from 15.03.2020 to 28.02.2022 was to be excluded and the limitation was to start again on 1st March, 2022. No reason has been given in the application as to why the appeal could not been filed by the Appellant upto 30th March, 2022. Then this period has also expired and only 15 days was available with the Appellant for the purpose of filing the appeal by seeking Condonation of Delay but a lame excuse has been given in the application that the appeal could not be filed due to ill health of the partner without giving any evidence to the effect about the illness.
The Appellant, during course of the hearing, submitted that there are four other partners in the Appellant firm. Then in such circumstances, any other partner could have easily come forward to file the appeal if the Appellant was really interested in pursuing the appeal within the period of limitation.
Thus, taking an overall view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, we are of the considered opinion that it is not a fit case to extend the period of limitation that too because this appeal is filed only against the order of cost. Accordingly, the present application is hereby dismissed and as a result of thereof, the present appeal is also dismissed.