ANIRUDDHA BOSE,J. - (1.) Today when the matter is called on, I find there is no representation from Jessop and Co. or Sri Pradip Kumar Singhania.
(2.) Mr. Kar, learned Senior Advocate, appears on behalf of the Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd. (BCCL) and apprises this Court that shares of Angelo Rhodes Ltd. have been transferred by his client in the year 1994. He could not indicate the exact date on which such transfer has taken place. He has also apprised this Court that approval of Reserve Bank of India for such transfer was obtained but he does not have instruction at this moment as to who had signed the share transfer form or whether information relating to winding up status of Angelo Brothers Ltd. was made available on the Reserve Bank of India or not.
(3.) Mr. Dasgupta, learned Advocate who is assisting Mr. Kar specifically brings to my notice the prayers made in Judge's Summons taken out in Company Application No. 717 of 2015 and his submission is that these very prayers were made by the applicants therein and BCCL has sought dismissal of that application by taking out C.A. No. 111 of 2017. He has also brought to my notice an order passed on 13th June, 2017 in C.A. No. 111 of 2017 and C.A. No 717 of 2015 in which I had observed that the issues relating to transfer of shares of Angelo Rhodes Ltd. would be examined when I shall adjudicate C.A. No. 572 of 2016. Mr. Deepak Khosla, learned Advocate for the applicants in response points out that in C.A. No. 717 of 2015, direction was not sought upon BCCL and in prayers (c) and (d) thereof, the directions were sought upon Angelo Rhodes Ltd. and three other persons, being Mr. Bharat Vaswani, Mr. Jeremy John Robinow and Mr. Umesh Chandrasekhar. All the three aforesaid individuals have been described in the said application as directors of Angelo Rhodes Ltd. Certain particulars were also sought from Reserve Bank of India in that application. In the instant application, the prayer for aforesaid order is not being pressed in relation to C.A. No. 717 of 2015. Mr. Khosla's stand is that this is an independent order his clients are praying for with the object of preservation of the company's assets. The BCCL's stand however is that the said shares did not form part of the assets of the Angelo Brothers Ltd. That question I am not examining now. Today directions have been sought for primarily to ascertain the manner in which the 50,000 shares of Angelo Rhodes Ltd. were transferred. For this purpose, I direct BCCL to file an affidavit disclosing therein dates of the transfer, identities of the signatories to the transfer and copies of the share transfer forms pertaining to 50,000 shares of Angelo Rhodes Ltd. which were transferred in the year 1994.;