HT MEDIA LTD Vs. MAHDEVA MANI & ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present application under Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been filed by the Petitioner seeking the appointment of a Sole Arbitrator to adjudicate the disputes between the parties. The disputes have arisen under a Debenture Subscription Agreement dated 30th December, 2008. The said agreement was entered into between the Petitioner M/s HT Media Ltd. on one hand, M/s IOL Netcom Pvt. Ltd. (hereinafter "M/s IOL Netcom") and its promoters, on the other hand. The promoters as listed in Exhibit 1 of the agreement are extracted herein below:

(2.) Iol Netcom is stated to have been wound up. Three of the promoters, namely, M/s Premier Millennium Marketing & Trading Pvt. Ltd., M/s Goodluck Millennium Trading & Marketing and M/s Kohinoor Merchandise Pvt. Ltd. have all been merged into a company called M/s Aurum Ventures Pvt. Ltd. This fact has been captured in the affidavit dated 5th December, 2018 filed by one Mr. Saurabh Sangekar.

(3.) Currently, therefore, there are a total of six Respondents as per the memo of parties dated 24th December, 2016 which is as under: