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Tata Steel Ltd. v. Raj Kumar Banerjee

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 639Decided 7 May 2025
C.A. No.-000408 - 2023
Justice J.B. Pardiwala · Justice R. Mahadevan

Background

Tata Steel Ltd. was the successful resolution applicant whose plan to take over Rohit Ferro-Tech Limited (the corporate debtor) was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on 7 April 2022. A minority shareholder of the debtor company, Raj Kumar Banerjee, wanted to challenge that approval and filed an appeal before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), but did so beyond the 30-day limitation period set by Section 61(2) of the IBC and even beyond the extra 15-day condonable grace period the law allows for genuine delay. The NCLAT nonetheless condoned the delay, reasoning that the last filing date fell on a Saturday which it treated as a holiday, extending the calculation in the shareholder's favour. Tata Steel appealed this condonation order to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a working Saturday (this being the first Saturday of the month, when the tribunal registry remains open) does not count as a holiday for computing limitation, so the NCLAT's extended calculation of the deadline was incorrect, and the shareholder's appeal was filed after even the maximum permissible 45 days (30 plus 15). Relying on its own binding precedent, the Court reiterated that the IBC's timelines are strict and mandatory by design: the NCLAT simply has no power to condone delay beyond the 15-day grace period, regardless of the reason, because doing so would undermine the IBC's core purpose of speedy and certain insolvency resolution. The NCLAT's order condoning the delay was therefore set aside, and Tata Steel's appeal was allowed.

Lesson Learnt

In time-sensitive statutory processes like insolvency resolution, missing even a single day beyond the law's explicit limitation and grace periods can be fatal to an appeal. Courts and tribunals cannot use equitable discretion to extend deadlines that Parliament has deliberately made rigid.

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

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