AI Structured Summary
Not yet generated for this judgment
Judgment
The present appeal is filed against the order dated 08.05.2025 of Ld. NCLT, Ahmedabad in I.A./42(AHM) 2025 wherein following order is made by the Ld. NCLT:
“IA/42(AHM)2025 Ld Sr Counsel for Petitioner seeks the prayer to delete Korea Zinc Company Limited i.e. original Respondent No. 13 from Company Petition/10 (AHM) 2024. The respondents have appeared in the main petition and waived notice and argued in the main petition. List for hearing along with main petition. List for further consideration on 26.06.2025.”
It is the submission of Learned Sr. Counsel for the Appellant that by not deciding the IA and keeping it for hearing along with the main petition, the Ld. NCLT has made I.A./42(AHM) 2025 infructuous. The issue of deletion of Respondent No. 13 (Korea Zinc Company Ltd.) ought to have been decided as a preliminary issue, prior in time before proceeding to hear the main petition.
The Learned Sr. Counsel for the Appellant submitted that earlier vide order dated 21.03.2024, the Ld. NCLT had agreed not to issue notice to Respondent No. 13 for the time being. However, vide detailed order dated 18.12.2024, the Ld. NCLT issued notice to Respondent No. 13.
Company Appeal (AT) No. 408 of 2024 was filed by Ramanand Shyamsunder Sangai who was Respondent No. 3 in the CP 10/2024 filed before the Ld. NCLT on which this Tribunal made the following orders vide order dated 26.03.2025:
“After some arguments, learned senior counsel for the appellants submits they intend to withdraw this appeal. In view of submissions made, the appeal is dismissed as withdrawn with liberty to all the parties to seek appropriate remedy as per law before the Ld. NCLT.
Pending applications, if any, are closed.”
The Learned Sr. Counsel submitted that based on the liberty granted by this Tribunal, I.A./42(AHM) 2025 was filed before the Ld. Tribunal seeking deletion of Respondent No. 13. Application IA 42(AHM)/2025 was filed by Phoenix Industries Ltd., Ramanand Shyamsunder Sangai and Amit Ramanand Sangai who were Respondents No. 1, 3 and 4 respectively in the company petition filed before the Ld. NCLT.
It is the submission of Ld. Sr. Counsel that Ld. NCLT should have decided on this IA, before proceeding to hear the main company petition.
The Learned Sr. Counsel for the Respondents submitted that there are serious allegations regarding diversion of business of the company to another company promoted by the Respondent to the original company petition. These allegations are contained in para 9 of the original company petition filed before the Ld. NCLT. As per these submissions, Korea Zinc was exclusively supplying Zinc ingots to Respondent No. 1 of the company petition, M/s Phoenix Industries Ltd., but later the supplies were diverted to Phoenix Green, as enumerated in the chart in para 9.9 at page 70 of the Appeal Paper Book.
The Learned Sr. Counsel further submitted that this issue regarding notice to Respondent No. 13 (Korea Zinc) was adjudicated by detailed order dated 18.12.2024 by Ld. NCLT and appeal filed against said order was withdrawn by the appellants, as noted in Tribunal’s order dated 26.03.2025. In view of this the issuance of notice to Respondent No. 13 has attained finality.
We have heard the Learned Sr. Counsels for the Appellant and the Respondents. In our considered opinion, the prayer in I.A./42(AHM) 2025 regarding deletion of Respondent No. 13 as a party to the said lis (CP. No. 10(AHM)/2024) requires to be decided prior in time to the final hearing of the main company petition. Thus, we direct the Ld. NCLT to take up and decide the I.A./42(AHM) 2025 at least one week before final hearing in the main CP. No. 10(AHM)/2024 pending before the Ld. NCLT.
With the above directions, the appeal is disposed of in above terms. Pending application(s) are also disposed of.