A two-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday declined to keep in abeyance its order to suspend 10 directors of Unitech Ltd. and permit the governments to appoint its nominees on the board of the troubled firm.
The tribunal said that the new directors of Unitech would comply with all the orders of the Supreme Court.
The bench also directed the government to give 10 names by December 20, the date of the next hearing. “This order, already passed, shall be subject to compliance of all orders of Supreme court,” said the NCLT bench headed by Chairman Justice M.M. Kumar.
The tribunal also directed Unitech managing directors Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra to file their replies.
Earlier in the day, Unitech suffered a jolt when its 10 directors were suspended by the tribunal, which allowed the government to appoint their replacements.
Hours after NCLT debarred its 10 directors, Unitech approached the tribunal contending that the government had not informed the forum of Supreme Court bar on any coercive action against the company.
Earlier in the day, Unitech was dragged to the tribunal by the government seeking to take over the functioning of the firm alleging mismanagement and siphoning of funds by the management.
“In view of the fact and satisfaction of basic criteria for interim directions, a prima facie case is made out and in larger public interest we grant the interim directions,” Justice Kumar said pronouncing the order.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the government, said: “We want to avoid insolvency of this company, otherwise 19,000 home-buyers will be left high and dry.”
‘Protecting depositors’
Moreover, there are about 51,000 depositors of Unitech. Nobody had appeared for Unitech in the morning hearing. Mr. Jain told the tribunal that the government tried to serve Unitech an advance copy of the petition but Unitech refused to accept it.
In April, the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police arrested Unitech’s MD Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra for allegedly not developing a project despite receiving funds from investors. The company has over ₹6,000 crore debt with more than 16,000 undelivered units from a total of nearly 70 projects.
