When the appellant failed to file an appeal with in 45 days after receiving the certified copies on or before 02/02/2020 /18/03/2020 and without waiting for free copy of the orders, now he can not fall back that from the date of supply of free copy and due to Covid , his appeal on 20/07/2020 is within time
“421. Appeal from orders of Tribunal
(1) xxxx
(2) xxxx
(3) Every appeal under subsection (1) shall be filed within a
period of fortyfive days from the date on which a copy of the
order of the Tribunal is made available to the person aggrieved
and shall be in such form, and accompanied by such fees, as
may be prescribed:
Provided that the Appellate Tribunal may entertain an
appeal after the expiry of the said period of fortyfive days from
the date aforesaid, but within a further period not exceeding
fortyfive days, if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented
by sufficient cause from filing the appeal within that period.”
Therefore, it is true, as contended by the appellants, that
the period of limitation of 45 days prescribed in Section 421(3)
would start running only from the date on which a copy of the
order of the Tribunal is made available to the person aggrieved.
It is also true that under Section 420(3) of the Act read with Rule
50, the appellants were entitled to be furnished with a certified
copy of the order free of cost.
Therefore if the appellants had chosen not to file a copy
application, but to await the receipt of a free copy of the order in
terms of Section 420(3) read with Rule 50, they would be
perfectly justified in falling back on Section 421(3), for fixing the
date from which limitation would start running. But the
appellants in this case, chose to apply for a certified copy after 27
days of the pronouncement of the order in their presence and
they now fall back upon Section 421(3).
Despite the above factual position, we do not want to hold
against the appellants, the fact that they waited from 25.10.2019
(the date of the order of NCLT) upto 21.11.2019, to make a copy
application. But atleast from 19.12.2019, the date on which a
certified copy was admittedly received by the counsel for the
appellants, the period of limitation cannot be stopped from
running.
From 19.12.2019, the date on which the counsel for the
appellants received the copy of the order, the appellants had a
period of 45 days to file an appeal. This period expired on
02.02.2020.
By virtue of the proviso to Section 421(3), the Appellate
Tribunal was empowered to condone the delay upto a period of
period of 45 days. This period of 45 days started running from
02.02.2020 and it expired even according to the appellants on
18.03.2020. The appellants did not file the appeal on or before
18.03.2020, but filed it on 20.07.2020. It is relevant to note that
the lock down was imposed only on 24.03.2020 and there was no
impediment for the appellants to file the appeal on or before
18.03.2020. To overcome this difficulty, the appellants rely upon
the order of this Court dated 23.03.2020.
