Supreme Court: a litigant can't lose an IBC appeal because the NCLAT's e-filing system failed

The Supreme Court set aside an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal that had rejected an appeal by the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner against the approval of a resolution plan for Rolta India Limited under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Section 61(2) of the Code allows 30 days to appeal and lets the NCLAT condone a further delay of at most 15 days. The Provident Fund authority's appeal was e-filed one day after that outer limit, and the NCLAT held it had no power to condone the delay.

The record showed that the delay was caused solely by a backend failure in the NCLAT's own e-filing system, including failed one-time-password deliveries. The Supreme Court agreed that the NCLAT cannot condone delay beyond the statutory maximum. However, it held that the NCLAT should have applied the principle actus curiae neminem gravabit, that an act of the court shall prejudice no one.

Limitation runs only when a court or tribunal is open and able to receive papers. Where its system fails to accept a bona fide filing, the litigant cannot be left remediless, and the date of the first genuine attempt to e-file may be treated as the date of presentation. Citing A.R. Antulay v. R.S. Nayak, the Court restored the appeal and asked the NCLAT to decide whether sufficient cause existed for the delay beyond 30 days.