The Company Law Board (CLB) today returned the petitions of Telenor and Unitech over the dispute in their joint venture Uninor on technical grounds.
The CLB Chairman, Mr B.R. Deshmukh, asked both the parties to mention their cross-petitions after rectifying the errors on March 13. The details of the errors are not known. CLB also suggested both the parties to sit together and mediate to reach an amicable solution.
Norway's Telenor Group and Unitech had taken their dispute over Uninor to the Company Law Board. The companies have separately filed petitions with the CLB seeking protection of their respective investments in the telecom venture.
While Telenor said it has moved the CLB to prevent any obstruction in securing its investments, Unitech has filed a petition to prevent Telenor from assuming full control over the business and Uninor assets.
Telenor had announced plans to scrap its partnership with Unitech on account of fraud and misrepresentation. Unitech said it is equally sensitive to interests of customers, employees, and other stakeholders of Uninor but will resist any unilateral action by Telenor. Unitech alleged that Telenor was trying to rescind the shareholders' agreement and annul the Articles of Uninor only to get out of certain protective provisions for the minority shareholders including the non-compete provision.