Limitation barred a section 9 insolvency claim where a settlement request was not an acknowledgment or promise to pay.

An operational creditor's section 9 Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code claim was found time-barred because the invoices were dated 11 February 2012 and the application was filed only in October 2018. The corporate debtor's letter of 14 December 2017 was treated merely as a request to discuss settlement, not as a written and signed acknowledgment of liability under section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, or an express promise to pay a barred debt under section 25(3) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. As limitation had already expired, the claim could not be revived.

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Issues: (i) Whether the operational creditor's claim under section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 was barred by limitation, and whether the corporate debtor's letter dated 14 December 2017 constituted an acknowledgment of liability or a promise to pay so as to extend limitation.

Analysis: The claim was founded on invoices dated 11 February 2012, while the section 9 application was filed in October 2018. The letter dated 14 December 2017 was only a request for discussion to settle the claim and did not contain a written and signed admission of liability or an express promise to pay. The Court held that such a communication could not be treated as an acknowledgment under section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963, nor as a promise to pay a barred debt within section 25(3) of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. As the prescribed period had expired well before the application was filed, the benefit of limitation could not be invoked to save the claim.

Conclusion: The limitation objection was upheld and the section 9 application was held to be time-barred, in favour of the appellant.

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