Business Standard ·
Litigant cannot lose right to appeal over tribunal's e-filing glitch: SC
The Supreme Court said the period during which the tribunal's filing system was non-functional could be excluded while calculating the statutory limitation period
The Supreme Court recently held that a litigant should not lose the right to appeal merely because a tribunal’s e-filing system prevented a timely filing.
A Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sheel Nagu made the observation while reviving an appeal filed by the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner-II (RPFC) against an order approving a resolution plan for Rolta India Limited.
The appeal was lodged before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) one day beyond the statutory deadline after repeated attempts to upload it failed because of technical problems with the tribunal’s portal.
Under Section 61(2) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, an appeal against an NCLT order must ordinarily be filed within 30 days. The NCLAT can condone a delay of up to another 15 days if sufficient cause is shown.
In this case, the limitation period ended on January 14, 2026, while January 29 was the final day of the additional 15-day period. The RPFC attempted to file the appeal online on January 28 but could not complete the process because of problems with OTP delivery. A further attempt on January 29 also failed after the NCLAT Registry reported a backend technical issue.