HIRJI PREMCHAND DEDHIA Vs. RAVI GUM INDUSTRIES LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a Company Petition filed by the Petitioner under section 241 read with section 242 of the Companies Act 2013 against Respondent Nos.2 (R.2) and Respondent No.3 (R3) for conducting the affairs of the Respondent No.l (Rl) Company in a manner prejudicial and oppressive to the Petitioner members and are against the interest of the company, apart from being illegal. This case was listed for hearing on several occasions in the past but unfortunately the Respondent has never bothered either to file a reply or to represent the matter either personally or through any Representative. The Petitioner has placed an Affidavit dated 16.8.2017 affirming the service of Petition on the Respondent. According to the "Consignment Tracking Record" the delivery is confirmed. There is one more Affidavit of Service dated 13.10.2017 through which the Petitioner has affirmed that the today's date of hearing (20-11-2017) was duly intimated. Although number of opportunities were granted but the Respondent remained absent throughout. It is worth mentioning at this stage that these very Petitioners earlier had filed a Petition under section ill of the Companies Act on 06.02.2012 wherein as well, the Respondent was M/s. Ravi Gum Industries. Even at that time this very Respondent remained absent, hence Company Petition No.01 of 2012 & Company Petition No.ll of 2012 were decided vide Order dated 22.05.2017 with the following observations":-

(2.) Facts of the case revealed that R.l is a Company in which the Petitioners collectively hold 18.84% (18436+13408'31844 shares out of 1,69,000 shares issued by the Company) of the total shares issued of the Respondent No.l Company. The Petitioner has alleged that the names of the Petitioners were illegally removed from the Register of Members of the Company, in spite of this Tribunal's Orders in Company Petition No.1/2012 and 11/2012 to restore the names of the Petitioners to the Register of Members of the Respondent Company. Since the Respondents have violated the Orders of this Tribunal, the Petitioners have filed the impugned Petition under Clause (a) of Subsection (l) of Section 244 read with Section 241 and 242 of the Companies Act, 2013.

(3.) In the light of the past background now in the present Petition the Petitioners have also casted a doubt that the shares of the Father of the Petitioner No.l seems to have been transferred to one Jignesh Dedhia and Gangaben Dedhia. They claimed that such transfers, if made, would also be void as it is in violation of Articles of Association of the Respondent Company and in violations of the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act, in view of the fact that the Father of the Petitioner No.l i.e. Shri Premchand Dedhia did not transfer the shares while he was alive and the shares have been transferred mala fidly after his death to defraud the Petitioners and to defeat their rights.