2025 Supreme(SC) 2128

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
SANJAY KUMAR, SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA, JJ.
Saturn Ventures And Advisors Pvt Ltd Etc. – Petitioner
Versus
S. Gopalakrishnan – Respondent
Review Petition (C) No. 2494 of 2025 In Civil Appeal Diary No. 20174 of 2025
Decided On : 11-11-2025

An appeal under the insolvency statute must be filed within forty-five days, extensible by fifteen days. The time taken to obtain a certified copy is only excluded if the application for such copy is filed before the initial forty-five-day limitation period expires.

Headnote:(A) Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 - Sections 62(1) and 62(2) - Appeal - Limitation period - Condonation of delay - Application for certified copy - Exclusion of time - Held, exclusion of time for obtaining certified copy is not permissible when the application for such copy is filed after the expiry of the primary limitation period - Statutory period for filing an appeal is forty-five days, which may be extended by an additional fifteen days upon satisfaction of sufficient cause - Where an appeal is filed on the sixty-second day, it falls outside the permissible limit. (Paras 2, 3, 4)

Facts of the case:
The petitioner sought a review of an order whereby their appeal was dismissed by the court on the grounds of limitation. The order under challenge originated from an appellate tribunal. The petitioner applied for a certified copy of the impugned order only after the forty-five-day limitation period had elapsed. Consequently, the final appeal was filed on the sixty-second day, seeking condonation for the delay.

Findings of Court:
The court noted that there was no basis to allow the review. It reiterated that the time spent acquiring a certified copy of an order is only excludable if the request for the copy is made before the initial limitation period expires. Since the petitioner applied for the certified copy after the primary period had lapsed, the delay calculation remained unchanged, exceeding the total sixty-day limit.

Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled to exclude the time taken to secure a certified copy from the calculation of the limitation period and whether the appeal filed on the sixty-second day was within the condonable limits provided by the governing statute.

Ratio Decidendi: An appellate court strictly enforces statutory limitation periods. Under the relevant provisions, the exclusion of time for obtaining certified copies is not available if the application for such copy is filed after the primary limitation period. Since the statutory extension is limited to fifteen days, an appeal filed on the sixty-second day is beyond the court's jurisdiction to condone.

Result: Review petition dismissed.