Mitali Palnitkar
Published On: January 07, 2022 at 19:35 IST
The Bombay High Court was approached by Yes Bank which requested to direct Dish TV (India) Ltd on the disclosure of the results of December 30, 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM) publicly and on bringing the results into effect.
The dispute was with a promoter entity of Dish TV, World Crest Advisories LLP. These are Essel Group Companies whose founder is Subhash Chandra and his brother Jawahar Goel is the Chairman and Managing Director of Dish TV.
Yes Bank had given loan to Essel Group and a payment of Rs 5,270 crore was defaulted by the company in 2019 after which the bank pledged 47.19 crore shares in Dish TV and held 25.63% stake in it.
In 2021, a Suit was filed in the Bombay High Court against Yes Bank and Catalyst Trusteeship Ltd by World Crest. It claimed the ownership of 44 crore equity shares in Dish TV which Yes Bank holds in its demat account. It also sought to restrain the bank from voting in AGM but it was denied by the Bombay High Court but stated that AGM’s result shall abide by the decision of the interim application in the suit of World Crest.
After the AGM, Dish TV denied on disclosing the voting results on three resolutions which were Adoption of audited financial statement for FY 2020-21, Re-appointment of Ashok Mathai Kurien as Director, and Ratification of remuneration to cost auditors for FY 22. Instead, Dish TV stated, “The Company has moved suitable application before the Hon’ble High Court in order to place the same before the Court.”
Yes Bank stated that the High Court Order did not prohibit the publication of AGM results and claimed that Essel Group entities had made more than 6 attempts restricting the bank exercising its rights as shareholder.
The bank claimed in its Petition that the orders of the Court were being circumvented by Dish TV and that the results of AGM shall not be kept as a secret. It requested the Court to order on the implementation of AGM results.