Supreme Court: a litigant's own delay before seeking a certified copy counts against the 60-day limit to appeal under IBC Section 62

The Supreme Court dismissed, as barred by limitation, a Civil Appeal filed by the Assistant Commissioner of Central Tax, CGST Division, against a Resolution Plan the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) had confirmed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). Section 62(1) of the IBC lets an aggrieved person appeal to the Supreme Court within forty-five days "from the date of receipt" of the NCLAT's order, extendable by a further fifteen days under Section 62(2) on sufficient cause — an absolute outer ceiling of sixty days. The NCLAT had pronounced its order on 2 August 2023, but the Department applied for a certified copy only on 6 September 2023, thirty-five days later, and filed the appeal on 21 November 2023, forty-one days after receiving the copy on 11 October 2023.

The Court held that limitation runs from the date of pronouncement, not from whenever a party chooses to collect a certified copy; under Section 12(2) of the Limitation Act, 1963, only the time the Registry actually takes to prepare the copy is excluded, and the Department's thirty-five days of prior inaction counted directly against the statutory period. Adding both stretches came to seventy-six days, sixteen days beyond the sixty-day ceiling, which no court has the power to condone. The appeal was dismissed, with no order as to costs.