The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) at Kochi has recently held that the pendency of an appeal or any other proceeding before a different forum cannot be a valid ground for missing the strict deadlines for filing claims under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), while refusing to condone a delay of 787 days by the Customs Department
A coram of Judicial Member Vinay Goel and Technical Member Madhu Sinha observed,
“The pendency of an appeal or other proceeding before a different forum cannot be considered a sufficient or valid ground for non-filing of a claim within the prescribed period. If such a plea is accepted, it would defeat the very purpose of a time-bound liquidation process and open the floodgates for stale claims…