Limitation For Filing Appeal Against NCLT Order Begins From Date Of Its Upload: NCLAT

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal at Chennai has held that the limitation period for filing an appeal against an order of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)  begins from the date the order is uploaded on the tribunal's website.

On this ground alone, it dismissed two appeals filed by Cerebra Integrated Technologies Ltd as time-barred.

A coram comprising Judicial Member Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma and Technical Member Jatindranath Swain (Technical Member), rejected Cerebra's plea that limitation should run from the date a free copy of the order was made available.

The bench held that once an order is uploaded, it enters the public domain and therefore the limitation period must be computed from the date of upload.

“once the impugned order was admittedly uploaded on the website of the Tribunal on 05.05.2025, the order will have to be construed to have come into the public domain from the said date and that, it has been made available to all including the Appellant. Since the Appeal could have been preferred by the Appellant by downloading the copy of the impugned order, which was uploaded on 05.05.2025, the period of limitation will have to be determined from the said date,” the tribunal said"

The appeals were filed against an order of the NCLT Bengaluru May 1, 2025. The NCLT had dismissed Cerebra's applications seeking to implead additional parties in corporate insolvency resolution process petitions filed against the company.

Cerebra sought condonation of a 10-day delay. It argued that although the NCLT order was uploaded on May 5, 2025, the free copy was made available only on May 15, 2025. The appellate tribunal rejected this contention, noting that the appeal could have been filed by downloading the order once it was uploaded.

The insolvency proceedings arise from two petitions filed under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code by financial creditors Just Right Life Ltd and Manish Kumar Bhardwaj, proprietor of Bhardwaj Enterprises. The creditors alleged defaults of over Rs. 2.63 crore and Rs. 2.25 crore, respectively. The debts had been assigned to them by entities including More Engineering LLP and Sunstar Realty Development Pvt Ltd.

Cerebra alleged fraud and claimed the loans had already been repaid. It argued that the assignments were made without notice and sought to implead the original lenders and related parties to establish repayment and expose alleged collusion.

The NCLT rejected the impleadment applications, holding that at the pre-admission stage of a financial creditor's insolvency petition, only the financial creditor and the corporate debtor are necessary parties.

It held that adding third parties would convert the summary insolvency process into a civil trial, which is contrary to the objective of the insolvency law.

On limitation, the NCLAT noted that the statutory period of 30 days to file an appeal, extendable by a further 15 days, expired on June 19, 2025. The appeals were e-filed only on June 23, 2025, that is, 49 days after the order was uploaded. The tribunal recorded that there was nothing on record to show that Cerebra had applied for certified copies within the prescribed time or pleaded sufficient cause for the delay, subsequently dismissing the appeal. 

Click Here To Read/Download Order