JAI SHANKAR AGRAHARI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these writ petitions, petitioners were Directors of various Companies and have been declared disqualified to continue as Directors of all the Companies in which they were Directors, under Section 164 (2) of Companies Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as "Act, 2013"), for a period of five years. Petitioners, therefore, have challenged declaration made by Registrar of Companies, U. P, Kanpur (hereinafter referred to as "ROC") publishing notice of such disqualification of petitioners specifying the period of five years and in most cases it is from 01.11.2016 to 31.10.2021 while in some cases period of five years varies but total period of disqualification is five years. Petitioners have prayed for quashing of aforesaid declaration made by ROC. They have also sought a mandamus directing respondents to reactivate petitioners' Director Identification Number (hereinafter referred to as 'DIN') and restore their names on the Roll of Directors.

(2.) The issues raised in all these writ petitions are common and facts are also similar, hence as agreed by learned counsel appearing in all these writ petitions for respective parties, all these petitions have been heard together and are being decided by this common judgment.

(3.) For the purpose of delving into pleadings and facts, with consent of parties, we have taken Writ Petition No.12498 of 2019 (Jai Shankar Agrahari vs. Union of India and another) as the leading 'writ petition' and this writ petition hereinafter would be referred to as "WP-I".