Supreme Court restores NCLAT appeal after e-filing glitch, rules technical failure cannot bar litigant
The Supreme Court has restored an appeal before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) after it was dismissed as time-barred, ruling that technical glitches in the tribunal's e-filing system cannot be held against litigants.
A Division Bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu applied the legal principle "actus curiae neminem gravabit" (court action shall not harm anyone) to exclude the period of system failure from the statutory filing deadline. While Section 61(2) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code does not ordinarily permit condonation of delays beyond 45 days, the Court held that when a litigant makes a bona fide filing attempt thwarted solely by portal failure, the first genuine attempt should be treated as the filing date.
The case involved a challenge to an NCLT order approving a resolution plan for Rolta India Ltd. The appellant's appeal was rejected after missing the deadline by one day due to e-filing portal malfunctions on 28 January 2026.
