APOLLO INTERNATIONAL LTD Vs. SUPRIYA PHARMACEUTICALS LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit was not being proceeded with inasmuch as the defendantcompany was said to have become a sick company and proceedings were pending under the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985 (SICA). In terms of Section 22 of SICA, prima facie the plaintiff had to take prior permission of Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR)/Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction(AAIFR) before continuing with the suit.

(2.) The law is now however settled by a Division Bench judgment of three Judges of the Supreme Court in the case of Raheja Universal Limited Vs. NRC Limited and Ors., 2012 4 SCC 148. Paras 55, 58 and 77 to 81 of the said judgment are relevant and the same read as under:-

(3.) The aforesaid paragraphs show that the proceedings for which prior permission is required under Section 22 of SICA are proceedings in the nature of execution, distress or like. It is not every suit or every suit for recovery which automatically becomes proceedings in the nature of execution, distress or like, and only such suits of recovery where there would be proceedings which cause liquidation of assets of a sick company, would be those suits which would be hit by the bar of Section 22 of SICA.