Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd said it has filed a suit against Invesco Developing Markets Fund in the Bombay High Court, seeking to declare the requisition notice sent by Invesco, calling for the removal of promoter and managing director Punit Goenka, as illegal and invalid.

This is the next step in the heated back and forth battle between the media behemoth and the American investment management company, which particularly intensified yesterday when the Zee board junked Invesco’s request for an EGM on the grounds of illegality and invalidity. This move by Zee is to legally ratify the Punit Goenka controlled board’s claims.

Invesco, which had also filed a suit against Zee in the National Company Law Tribunal, is waiting for the Tribunal to hear and adjudicate on the matter in a hearing scheduled for October 4. Now the media company and its largest minority shareholder will be battling it out in both the NCLT as well as in the Mumbai High Court.

It all started with Invesco’s September 11 requisition to hold an extraordinary general meeting for the removal of Punit Goenka from the company’s board, as well as to appoint six additional independent directors to the board. Invesco previously said they were fighting to give minority shareholders a voice, and it is their democratic right to call for an EGM, which is why they reiterated this request on September 23, after Zee announced its plans to merge with Sony, keeping Punit Goenka at the helm as the MD.

Merger or not merger, Invesco wants shareholders to decide, whether Punit Goenka should be the one to take the 29-year-old media giant’s legacy forward.

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