Limitation for Section 7 IBC applications depends on a pleaded default date and valid acknowledgment to extend time.

A Section 7 IBC application must be supported by a pleaded and legally sustainable date of default, and limitation cannot be extended merely because recovery proceedings or recovery certificates exist. The record showed no sufficient material to establish filing within three years of the right to apply, and no balance sheet or other acknowledged writing was produced to invoke Section 18 of the Limitation Act or justify exclusion of time. The application was therefore held time-barred and liable to rejection on limitation.

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Issues: Whether the application under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 was barred by limitation for want of a pleaded date of default and legally recognizable acknowledgment extending time.

Analysis: The application did not state the date of default in Part IV. The relevant default was traceable, at the latest, to the classification of the account as non-performing asset, and the record did not contain any legally sufficient material to show that the claim was within three years of the right to apply. The filing of recovery proceedings and the existence of recovery certificates did not, by themselves, extend limitation. No balance sheet or other acknowledged writing was placed on record to bring the debt within Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, and the materials available did not justify exclusion of time on the facts shown.

Conclusion: The application was held to be time-barred and liable to be rejected on limitation.

Ratio Decidendi: A Section 7 application under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 must be supported by a pleaded and legally sustainable date of default, and if filed beyond the prescribed period, it cannot be saved merely by recovery proceedings unless there is a valid acknowledgment or other basis for extension or exclusion of limitation.

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