The Supreme Court has ruled that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) takes precedence over the Supreme Court Rules (SCR) in case of conflict, underlining the importance of strict timelines in insolvency proceedings.
A bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma held that litigants cannot circumvent the rigid limitation regime under the IBC by filing defective appeals to save limitation and then curing defects at their convenience.
The court dismissed an appeal filed by a liquidator as time-barred, finding delays both in filing and re-filing the matter.
The judgment came in an appeal filed by a liquidator challenging an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which was filed beyond the prescribed timelines and accompanied by substantial delay in curing defects.
The court warned that permitting litigants to cure defects long after the stipulated period would defeat the very objective of the IBC, which was enacted to ensure expedition and finality in insolvency proceedings.
