Company Petition Maintainable

The Supreme Court has said aside the judgment of the Calcutta High Court in the long - standing dispute between Bhagwati Developers and Peerless General Finance Ltd. over a compliant of oppression and mismanagement. Since the dispute started in 1991, the matter was remanded to the high court to decide it within six months. The High Court had rejected the claim of Bhagwati Developers to maintain the company petition because it had less than required shares to move the company court. The Supreme Court stated that winding up petition can be filed with 10 per cent shareholding in all. It is not necessary that the petitioner must hold it individually. A petition can be filed even after obtaining the consent of other shareholders, the Supreme Court ruled. It said that the law does not require that "the consent should be given by a member personally, as the same can also be given by the power of attorney holder of such as shareholder. Furthermore, the issue of compliant must be decided on the basis of a broad consensus approach, in relation to the avoidance and subsistence of the case. The same must be decided on the basis of the form of such consent, rather on the substance of the same. There is hence, no need of written consent, or even of the consent being annexed with the company petition.