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2022 (12) TMI 146 - AT - Insolvency and BankruptcyJurisdiction - power of Tribunal to entertain and decide an application for condonation of delay beyond the period of 45 days - Section 61 of I&B Code - HELD THAT:- Section 61(1) provides that any person who is aggrieved by the order of the Adjudicating Authority can prefer an Appeal to the NCLAT. Section 61(2) says that every appeal preferred under Section 61(1) has to be filed within 30 days before the Appellate Tribunal. Proviso to 61(2) says that the Appellate Tribunal may allow the appeal after expiry of 30 days if it is satisfied that there is a sufficient cause in not filing the appeal in time but such period should not exceed 15 days. There is no other proviso in the Code, which is complete in itself, for the purpose for providing a window for filing the appeal beyond the period of 45 days. The plain reading of the aforesaid provision that the Appellant has a statutory right without any hindrance to file an appeal within 30 days before the Appellate Tribunal. But in case the appeal is filed by the Appellant, because of sufficient reason, within a further period of 15 days, it can seek condonation of delay in not filing the appeal by filing an Application under Section 5 of the Act. In these circumstances, the judgment relied upon by the Appellant in the case of Sesh Nath Singh [2021 (3) TMI 1183 - SUPREME COURT] would be helpful to him but when the appeal has been filed beyond the period 45 days, then the decision rendered in the case of “National Spot Exchange Limited Vs. Anil Kholi” [2021 (9) TMI 1156 - SUPREME COURT] would be applicable by which the Hon’ble Supreme Court has held the Appellate Tribunal has no jurisdiction at all to condone the delay exceeding 15 days from the period of 30 days, as contemplated under Section 61(2) of the IB Code. We have no doubt in our mind that the Appellant has missed the bus by causing delay in filing the appeal beyond the period of 45 days and cannot take the plea of an innocent litigant because it is not the jurisdiction of the Appellate Tribunal to look into the sufficient cause or otherwise while hearing the Application which has been filed under Section 5 of the Act for seeking condonation of delay beyond the period of 45 days. The appeal is hopelessly time barred and the same is hereby dismissed.
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