NCLT has reserved its order in the matter pertaining to Kirloskar Brothers (KBL). Atul and Rahul Kirloskar had approached the Mumbai bench of NCLT to oust sibling Sanjay Kirloskar as the Chairman and Managing Director of KBL, alleging oppression and mismanagement in the group’s flagship company.
The division bench of NCLT presided by VP Singh and Ravikumar Duraiswami, has reserved the order in an application filed by KBL challenging the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
The Maintainability Application filed by KBL argued that the main contention raised by Atul and Rahul is that the Compliance Officer rejected their application seeking pre-clearance to buy it’s ( KBL) shares. Only SEBI has the jurisdiction to go into this and not the tribunal.
In their petition, Atul and Rahul Kirloskar alleged that while the board has been arbitrarily rejecting their pre-clearance request for selling or buying shares, Sanjay Kirloskar has been increasing his shareholding in the company.
KBL counsel pointed out to the court that petitioners themselves had written a letter to SEBI and lodged complaints regarding the refusal to grant them pre-clearance. SEBI is looking into this and is yet to give its decision.
Citing judgements, the KBL counsel stressed that the petitioners have sought same relief from SEBI, and is now filing petition before the NCLT.