Curable defect in company appeal signing allowed where original filing was timely and later verification by principal officer cured irregularity.

A company's appeal signed by an Accounts Officer instead of the principal officer was treated as a curable procedural defect where the appeal itself had been filed within limitation. The verification rules required signature by the authorised principal officer, but the defect did not go to the maintainability of the appeal. A later appeal signed by the Vice-President (Finance), accepted as the principal officer, was allowed to rectify the earlier irregularity, and no separate condonation of delay was required because the original filing was timely.

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Issues: Whether an appeal filed within limitation but signed by an Accounts Officer instead of the company's principal officer suffered from a curable defect, and whether the subsequent duly signed appeal could be treated as valid without requiring condonation of delay.

Analysis: The appeal provisions and the prescribed verification rules required a company's appeal to be signed by its principal officer. The original appeals had been filed within the statutory period, but the signatures were not by the authorised person. The defect was treated as procedural rather than going to the maintainability of the appeal itself. The later appeals were filed by the Vice-President (Finance), who was accepted as the principal officer, and the earlier defect was allowed to be rectified. Since the original filing was within time and the defect was curable, the later filing did not create a delay requiring separate condonation.

Conclusion: The defect in the original appeals was held to be rectifiable, the rectification by the fresh appeals was allowed, and no delay in filing the appeals was held to arise.

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