TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (8) TMI 349
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....7-2020<br>Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 561 of 2020 - -<br>Insolvency & Bankruptcy<br>[Justice Bansi Lal Bhat] Acting Chairperson, [V. P. Singh] Member (Technical) And [Alok Srivastava] Member (Technical) For the Appellant : Mr R. Subramanian, Advocate For the Respondent : Mr Ramji Srinivasan, Sr. Advocate with Mr Atul Shanker Mathur, Advocate for R-10 JUDGMENT [ Per; V. P. Singh, Member (T) ] This Appeal emanates from the Order dated 31st December 2019 passed by the Adjudicating Authority/National Company Law Tribunal, Chennai, Bench, Chennai in M.A. No.908 of 2019 in I.A. No.38/2018 in C.P. No. 511(I.B.)/2017 whereby the Adjudicating Authority declined to interfere with the invocation of performance guarantee given a....
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....s statutory time limit. In reply to the objection, the Appellant contends that the impugned Order was passed on 31st December 2019, but the certified copy and free copy of the Impugned Order has not been issued to date. An unsigned copy of Order was uploaded on the website on 12th March 2020 with wrong details of the name of the Members, who had passed the Order. After that corrected unsigned copy of the Order with the correct name of Members was uploaded. Therefore, no copy of the Order was available till 12th March 2020. Consequently, the Appeal could have been filed up to 11th April 2020. But as per Order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court dated 23rd March 2020 limitation stands extended from 15th March 2020 onwards. In the circumstances, i....
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....uage of the proviso to Section 61(1)of the I&B Code makes it clear that this Tribunal does not have the power to extend the time limit beyond 15 days, in addition to the statutory time limit of 30 days. It is also clear that this extension of 15 days depends upon the satisfaction of the Appellate Tribunal, on being shown the sufficient cause for not filing the Appeal within the time limit. 4. Hon'ble the Supreme Court of India in the case of Mobilox Innovations (P) Ltd. v. Kirusa Software (P) Ltd., (2018) 1 SCC 353 : 2017 SCC OnLine SC 1154 : (2018) 1 SCC (Civ) 311 at page 394 has also laid down the law about the time line to be observed in Section 61 of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Hon'ble the Supreme Court has held that: ....
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....roceedings went on interminably, thereby damaging the interests of all stakeholders, except a recalcitrant management which would continue to hold on to the company without paying its debts. Both the Tribunal and the Appellate Tribunal will do well to keep in mind this principal objective sought to be achieved by the Code and will strictly adhere to the time-frame within which they are to decide matters under the Code." 5. This Tribunal has also taken the same view in the case of Pr. Director General of Income Tax v. Spartek Ceramics India Ltd., 2018 SCC OnLine NCLAT 289. In the above mentioned case, this Tribunal has held that: "53. As per sub-section (2) of Section 61, the appeal is required to be filed within thirty days befo....
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....llant has not submitted any application showing enough reason for not filing the Appeal within time, therefore the question of automatic extension of time limit does not arise. 8. It is pertinent to mention that Hon'ble the Supreme Court of India in the case of Mobilox Innovations Private Limited (supra) has already held that "The Appeal can be filed to the Appellate Tribunal under Section 61 of the Act within 30 days of the order of the Adjudicating Authority with an extension of 15 further days and no more." Hon'ble Supreme Court has further held that the strict adherence of these time lines is of essence to both the triggering process and the Insolvency Resolution Process. 9. This Tribunal in the case of Pr. Director of Income Tax ....
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....s is against the Order of the Adjudicating Authority in not granting the interim relief about the invocation of the performance bank guarantee given by the bankers, on behalf of the Corporate Debtor. 13. It is essential to the point that proviso to Section 3(31) of the I&B Code provides that: Sec "3(31): "Security interest" means right, title or interest or a claim to property, created in favour of, or provided for a secured creditor by a transaction which secures payment or performance of an obligation and includes mortgage, charge, hypothecation, assignment and encumbrance or any other agreement or arrangement securing payment or performance of any obligation of any person: Provided that security interest sha....