2026 (4) TMI 877

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....ukherjee, Adv., Mr. Hersh Desai, Adv. M/s. F.M. Associates, AOR. JUDGMENT PER SANJAY KUMAR, J 1. Nitendra Kumar Tomer, a suspended director of Ambro Asia Private Limited, the corporate debtor, filed the present appeal under Section 62 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ['the Code'], aggrieved by the judgment dated 07.01.2026 passed by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi (hereinafter, 'the NCLAT'), in Company Appeal (AT) (Insolvency) No. 931 of 2024. By the said judgment, the NCLAT confirmed the order dated 18.04.2024 passed by the National Company Law Tribunal, New Delhi Bench (hereinafter, 'the NCLT'), admitting CP (IB) No. 722/ND/2021, an application filed under Section 9 of the Code b....

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....on record, but we find that the final judgment dated 07.01.2026, presently under challenge before us, did not take note of the amended appeal memo and the judgment, as it stands, reflects the name of the corporate debtor as the appellant. 4. Having given thoughtful consideration to the matter, we are of the considered opinion that the NCLAT grossly erred in permitting a wholly incompetent appeal to be converted in the manner it was done. We may note that this incompetent appeal was filed on 24.04.2024 or thereabouts, assailing the order of admission dated 18.04.2024, and it was verified in the name of the corporate debtor, viz., Ambro Asia Private Limited, by Nitendra Kumar Tomer, claiming to be its director and authorized representative....

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....niently not placed on record along with this appeal, named Piyush Moona as the Interim Resolution Professional and he was, accordingly, shown as respondent No. 2 in the appeal filed before the NCLAT. Once the interim resolution professional was named by the NCLT in the admission order, Section 17(1)(a) of the Code would become operative. Therefore, with effect from the date of admission in the case on hand, i.e., 18.04.2024, the management of the affairs of the corporate debtor, Ambro Asia Private Limited, stood vested in Piyush Moona, Interim Resolution Professional, and it was not open to the suspended director of the corporate debtor to file an appeal in the name of the corporate debtor, Ambro Asia Private Limited, claiming to be its dir....

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....dification of the cause title in this incompetent appeal. Unfortunately, the NCLAT lost sight of this aspect and treated the wholly incompetent appeal as a merely defective one, whereby it deemed it appropriate to grant time to the suspended director to amend the memo of the appeal. Once the prescribed limitation period under Section 61(2) expired, it was not open to the suspended director to take steps to convert the incompetent appeal and maintain an appeal in his own name in August, 2025, long after expiry of the prescribed limitation. The NCLAT ought not to have permitted him to do so, whereby a time-barred appeal in the name of the suspended director was presented and entertained. 9. Though, the learned senior counsel appearing for ....

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....ion. 10. In Varun Pahwa vs. Renu Chaudhary (2019) 15 SCC 628, the plaint was not properly drafted inasmuch as, in the memo of parties, the plaintiff was described as Varun Pahwa through director of Siddharth Garments Private Limited, though it should have read as Siddharth Garments Private Limited through its director, Varun Pahwa. Holding this to be an inadvertent mistake in the plaint, which the trial Court should have allowed to be corrected so as to permit the company to sue as a plaintiff, this Court set aside the order declining to correct the memo of parties. Reference was made to the earlier decision in Uday Shankar Triyar (supra), wherein it was held that procedural defects and irregularities which are curable should not be allo....