Kailash Sinhal And Another vs Registrar Of Companies Nct Of Delhi & ...

Kailash Sinhal & Anr. ...Appellant(s)

Versus

Registrar of Companies, NCT of Delhi & Haryana ...Respondent(s)

Present: For Appellant : CS Nikita Goel. Mr. Nikhil Verma, Advocate. For : None. Respondents

ORDER

(Hybrid Mode)

03.07.2024: I.A. No. 559 of 2024

This application is filed seeking condonation of delay of 185

days in filing the present appeal. The impugned order was passed

on 20.03.2023 in CP (CA) 109/441/ND/2022 passed by the NCLT,

New Delhi.

2. The present appeal has been filed on 21.10.2023 under

Section 421 of the Companies Act, 2013 and the Appellant has -2-

prayed through an application for condonation of delay of 185 days

in filing the appeal.

3. We have heard Counsel for the Appellant and perused the

record.

4. Section 421 of the Companies Act, 2013, under which the

present appeal has been filed, read as under:

"421. Appeal from orders of Tribunal -

(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 -3-

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."

5. As per the aforesaid provision, any person who is aggrieved

by the order of the Tribunal may prefer an appeal to the Appellate

Tribunal. However, as per Section 421(3) any appeal, which is to

be filed under Section 421(1), has to be filed within the period of

45 days from the date on which a copy of the order of the Tribunal

is made available. The proviso to Section 421(3) states that the

Appellant may file the appeal even after expiry of period of 45 days

but the total period cannot exceed 90 days. As a matter of fact, the

total period which has been provided under the statute is 45 days

as statutory rights to file the appeal and 45 days as the extended

period on sufficient cause, if it is not filed within the time

prescribed. In the present case the appeal has been filed after a

delay of 185 days.

6. Thus, in our considered opinion, neither the application is

maintainable nor this Tribunal has the jurisdiction to condone the

period of delay beyond the total period of 90 days. Therefore, by -4-

holding that the application is not maintainable, the same is

hereby dismissed and since we have dismissed the application for

condonation of delay, therefore, the appeal is not found to be duly

constituted and the same is also dismissed.

[Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain] Member (Judicial)

[Ajai Das Mehrotra] Member (Technical)

R.N./Manu