The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 15 the long-standing family feud over division of assets between warring Kirloskar brothers Sanjay and Atul, and others, after mediation under former SC judge Indu Malhotra failed.
The SC had earlier tried hard to get the dispute resolved through mediation under Justice Malhotra by asking Sanjay and Atul and 13 others to cooperate and explore the possibility of an out-of-court settlement. Both sides had then agreed for mediation.
An earlier round of mediation in 2017 had failed when economist Vijay Kelkar had to relinquish his role as a mediator in May 2018 after recording in his final report that the issue relating to infraction of the ‘non-compete clause’ of the family settlement could not be resolved.
The top court had on July 27 last year ordered status quo in the matter.
Both KBL, a pump manufacturing company, and Sanjay had challenged a Bombay High Court June 21 order that sent the family dispute for arbitration.
KBL and Sanjay has alleged that Atul and other respondents had directly/indirectly incorporated various companies, including Optiqua Pipes and Electricals, and also acquired a stake in ESV A Pumps India so as to engage in businesses that are in competition of KBL. The family settlement prohibits any party or any Kirloskar Group company under their control from competing with one another.
However, the Atul group says that their companies – Kirloskar Oil Engines, Kirloskar Proprietary and La Gajjar Machineries — were not bound by the Deed of Family Settlement as they were neither signatories to the settlement, nor were parties before the SC, and hence cannot be parties to mediation/arbitration.
In an appeal before the SC, Sanjay claimed that his brothers and their spouses violated the settlement a year after it was signed when they sold their respective shares in KBL to Kirloskar Industries. He also claimed that his brothers violated the non-compete clause of the settlement in 2017 by acquiring La Gajjar while managing Kirloskar Oil, where they allegedly manufactured and advertised for submersible pumps, the core specialisation for KBL. Besides, he accused Atul and Rahul of ousting him from Kirloskar Proprietary, which was incorporated in 2017 to protect all trademarks of the group company.
While Sanjay filed a civil suit in 2018 to implement the DFS, stop other group companies from competing in the pump manufacturing business and sought Rs 750 crore as damages for breaching the non-compete clause by acquisition of La Gajjar and advertisements of submersible pumps, Atul and others moved the HC claiming that the Pune court proceedings were not maintainable as their three companies weren’t signatories to DFS.
from The Financial Express https://bit.ly/3sGDMHL
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment