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Ashdan Properties Pvt. Ltd. v. DSK Global Education and Research Pvt. Ltd.

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 959Decided 12 Aug 2025
Civil Appeal No. 10603 of 2024
Justice Sanjay Kumar · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

Ashdan Properties Private Limited was the successful resolution applicant whose resolution plan for a corporate debtor was approved by the NCLT, Mumbai Bench, on 23.06.2023. DSK Global Education and Research Pvt. Ltd., a dissatisfied party, e-filed an appeal against that order before the NCLAT on 25.07.2023 but did not attach a certified copy of the impugned order and did not seek condonation of delay at that time. It only applied for a certified copy on 23.08.2023, received it on 07.09.2023, and filed a condonation-of-delay application even later, on 22.09.2023. The NCLAT clubbed this appeal with ten others and decided the group on merits (01.07.2024) without ruling on the limitation objection Ashdan had specifically raised.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that it did not need to examine the merits because the appeal before the NCLAT was fundamentally defective on limitation grounds. Relying on its earlier rulings in V. Nagarajan v. SKS Ispat & Power Ltd. and A. Rajendra v. Gonugunta Madhusudhan Rao, the Court reiterated that under the IBC, limitation runs from the date an order is pronounced in open court (23.06.2023 here), not from the date it is uploaded online, and that filing a certified copy of the impugned order under Rule 22(2) of the NCLAT Rules is mandatory, not a mere formality that can be waived indefinitely. Since DSK Global neither sought an exemption from filing a certified copy nor applied for condonation of delay at the time of e-filing, its appeal was defective from the outset, and the NCLAT erred by deciding the matter on merits without first resolving this jurisdictional defect. The Supreme Court therefore set aside the NCLAT's judgment on this short technical ground alone.

Lesson Learnt

In IBC appeals, strict procedural compliance, filing within time from the date of pronouncement (not upload) and promptly applying for a certified copy, is not optional; courts will not overlook such lapses even to decide a case on its substantive merits.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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