No appeal lies against dismissal of contempt petition under Section 19 Contempt of Courts Act read with Section 425 Companies Act; appealable only against orders imposing punishment for contempt.

Judgment

(Hybrid Mode)

Per: Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma, Member (Judicial)

Impugned in this Company Appeal is the order dated 26.03.2025, that has been rendered by the Learned NCLT, Hyderabad Bench – II in the Contempt Petition No.7/2025, that was preferred in IA No.314/2024 in CP(IB) No.296/7/HDB/2022. The impugned order had ultimately resulted into the rejection of the Contempt Petition.

2. The Company Appeal is accompanied with a Condone Delay Application being IA No.1101/2025, where the Appellants have sought condonation of 15 days of delay that, has chanced in preferring the instant Company Appeal, which has been otherwise determined by the Registry to be 16 days of delay. Certain dates which have been extracted from the Appeal paper book and the impugned order will be relevant for determining the exact magnitude of delay in filing the instant appeal.

They are given below.

(i) The impugned order was passed on 26.03.2025.

(ii) The Appellant applied for the certified copy on 28.03.2025.

(iii) The Registry of the Tribunal prepared the copy on 01.04.2025.

(iv) The certified copy of the order was delivered on 01.04.2025 and

(v) The Company Appeal was e-filed on 11.05.2025.

3. The Appellants in their Application for condonation of delay have submitted that there happens to be 15 days of delay that, has chanced in preferring the Appeal, and that the delay was caused by circumstances beyond their control, such as not being able to know about pronouncement of the impugned order in time and non-communication of the same by their previous counsel, which is detailed in para 3.11 of the supporting application and the delay is inadvertent which may be condoned.

4. The said Application is being vehemently opposed by the Respondent No.3 by filing an objection to the effect that 30-day period from the date of the pronouncement of the order, i.e., 26.03.2025 would be expiring on 25.04.2025 and the condonable period of 15 days will also be expiring on 10.05.2025 and since the appeal has been e-filed on 11.05.2025 i.e., on the 46^th day, it will be beyond the period of limitation, as prescribed under the proviso to Sub-Section (2) of Section 61 of I & B Code, 2016 and such delay cannot be condoned in view of judgements of Hon’ble Apex Court. However, the impugned order itself shows that the application to procure the certified copy of the order was preferred by the Appellant on 28.03.2025, well within the prescribed period of limitation as contemplated under Section 61 of the I & B Code, 2016, for the purpose of preferring of an Appeal and the the certified copy of the order was supplied to him on 01.04.2025. In that eventuality, 4 days spent in procuring the certified copy of the impugned order are to be excluded in the light of the provisions contained under Section 12(2) of the Limitation Act, 1963 and after exclusion of the said 4 days, the Appeal is seen to have been filed on 42^nd day which is well within the condonable period of 15 days as per the proviso to section 61(2) of the Code. Further, the Appellants have given sufficient reasons for the delay in filing the appeal. In that eventuality, the objection as raised by the Respondent No.3 is overruled as not tenable and the delay that has chanced in preferring the Appeal, as explained in IA, as per the reasons specified in para 3.11, the IA No.1101/2025 would stand condoned and the Application IA No. 1101/2025 would stand allowed.

5. Heard Learned Counsel for the parties on the merits of the Appeal. The Appellants in the instant Company Appeal are the applicants to the Contempt Petition No.7/2025, having preferred the