The Supreme Court has ruled that the limitation period for an appeal under section 62 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code begins when the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal pronounces its order, not when a certified copy is received.
In Assistant Commissioner of Central Tax v Sreenivasa Rao Ravinuthala, the appellant applied for a copy on the thirty-fifth day after pronouncement. Even after excluding the time needed to obtain it, the appeal was filed after 76 actionable days.
The court said section 62 permits 45 days to appeal and a further condonable period of only 15 days. Receipt of the certified copy cannot postpone that statutory starting point. It upheld the preliminary objection and dismissed the appeal as time-barred on 14 October 2026.