Kailash Ramkishan Gupta & Another Vs Indian Commodity Exchange Limited & Ors. (NCLT Ahmedabad)
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Ahmedabad Bench, delivered its order in the case of Kailash Ramkishan Gupta and Neptune Overseas Limited vs Indian Commodity Exchange Limited (ICEX) and Others, granting a waiver under Section 244(1)(a) of the Companies Act, 2013. This allowed the applicants to maintain their petition alleging oppression and mismanagement against ICEX, even though their effective shareholding did not meet the statutory one-tenth threshold.
The application was filed under Section 244(1) of the Companies Act, 2013, seeking a waiver of the minimum shareholding requirement prescribed for filing a petition under Sections 241 and 242. These sections deal with allegations of oppression and mismanagement in a company. The applicants—Kailash Ramkishan Gupta and Neptune Overseas Limited—claimed they collectively held 5,54,20,499 equity shares in ICEX, out of its total issued and paid-up capital of 53,35,07,476 shares of ₹5 each.
However, out of the applicants’ total holdings, 4,82,09,060 shares of Applicant No. 2 (Neptune Overseas Limited) were under attachment by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under proceedings initiated pursuant to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The applicants argued that the attachment did not extinguish their ownership or voting rights, and hence, they continued to meet the eligibility criteria under Section 244(1)(a).
