Limitation for insolvency claims runs from default, and a prior winding up petition cannot revive a time-barred debt.

Limitation under Article 137 of the Limitation Act applies to applications under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code from the date of default, and section 238A makes that regime applicable to insolvency proceedings. A winding up petition later transferred and treated as a section 7 application cannot survive if the debt was already time-barred when the original petition was filed. A separate suit for specific performance does not extend, revive, or suspend limitation for the insolvency claim, because it is an independent proceeding. The transfer of an earlier winding up petition does not resurrect a stale debt. The petition was therefore barred by limitation.

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Issues: Whether a winding up petition transferred and treated as an application under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 could be proceeded with when the underlying default had occurred more than three years before filing, and whether the pendency of a suit for specific performance could keep the claim alive for limitation purposes.

Analysis: Section 238A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 makes the Limitation Act, 1963 applicable to proceedings under the Code. The governing test is therefore whether the application was time-barred on the date when the winding up petition was originally filed and later transferred. Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963 applies to such applications, and the period begins when default occurs. A separate civil suit for specific performance is an independent proceeding and does not extend, revive, or suspend limitation for a winding up petition. The relevant trigger for a petition under Section 433(e) read with Section 434 of the Companies Act, 1956 is the date of default in payment of the debt, not the later assertion of commercial insolvency or pendency of parallel litigation.

Conclusion: The winding up petition was barred by limitation and could not be continued as a Section 7 application. The challenge succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Limitation under Article 137 applies to applications under Sections 7 and 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 from the inception of the Code, and a time-barred debt cannot be resurrected by transfer of an earlier winding up petition or by pendency of a separate recovery suit.

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