Court/Tribunal can condone delay under section 5 limitation act even in the absence of a formal application: SC

The Supreme Court held that there is no bar to exercise by the Court/Tribunal of its discretion to condone delay under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, in the absence of a formal application. However, the Court can always insist that an application or an affidavit showing cause for the delay be filed, the bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and Hemant Gupta observed. The court was considering an appeal against a judgment of NCLAT judgment in which one of the issue raised was whether delay beyond three years in filing an application under Section 7 of IBC can be condoned, in the absence of an application for condonation of delay made by the applicant under Section 5 of the Limitation Act? In this case, the Financial Creditor had not filed any application before the NCLT under Section 5 of the Limitation Act. Therefore, Corporate Debtor contention was that the delay in filing the application under Section 7 of the IBC, could not have been condoned.