National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT): The Bench of Justice A.I.S Cheema, Member (Judicial) and Balvinder Singh, Member (Technical) observed that a shareholder of a company is entitled to file a petition for the revival of the company.
The name of one “Venku Hospitals (P)Ltd.” was struck off from the Register of Companies in 2005 for non-filing of annual accounts and returns w.e.f. the Financial Year ending 2000-2001. A petition was filed before the National Company Law Tribunal, Chennai for the restoration of the company’s name in the Register under Section 252 of the Companies Act, 2013. However, the petition was dismissed by NCLT on the ground, inter alia, that Appellant 2 (Director of Venku Hospitals) had no locus standi to file the same. Aggrieved thereby, the present appeal was filed.
Anandh K., Advocate for the appellants made extensive arguments assailing the order of the Registrar of Companies, Chennai and the subsequent order of NCLT. Per Contra, Registrar of Companies supported its order in the reply filed by it. Sanjiv Kumar Mohanty, Advocate appeared as Amicus Curiae.
At the outset, the Appellate Tribunal observed that Appellant 2 was also a shareholder of Venku Hospitals and as per Section 252(3), he was entitled to file the petition for the revival of the company. However, on perusing facts of the case, it was held that no relief could be granted to the appellants. It was noted that all the documents filed by Venku Hospitals to support their case were old and irrelevant. Thus, the Appellate Tribunal did not find any occasion to interfere with the impugned order and hence, the appeal was dismissed. [Venku Hospitals (P) Ltd. v. Registrar of Companies, 2019 SCC OnLine NCLAT 7, dated 18-02-2019]
