NCLT refers Sanghi dispute to IAMC

Hyderabad: The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has referred the long-drawn corporate dispute among the brothers of the Hyderabad-headquartered Sanghi group to the newly established International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC). The 13-year-old dispute that was being litigated since 2008 is perhaps the first and large corporate dispute to be referred to the new dispute resolution centre officially.

The dispute involved multiple corporate entities controlled by different Sanghi family members, who have levelled serious allegations against each other involving oppression and mismanagement under Sections 397/398 of the Companies Act, 2003.

The corporate entities entangled in the long-drawn dispute included publicly-listed Sanghi Industries and other closely held entities like Sanghi Cements, Sanghi Synthetics, Balaji Zippers, SKK Zippers, Sanghi Poly Zips, among others.

The first case was between Ravi Sanghi & another versus Balaji Zippers & 10 others. The second case was between Ravi Sanghi & Another versus Sanghi Synthetics & 10 others. The third case was between Ravi Sanghi & Another versus SKK Zippers & 10 others. The fourth case was between Ravi Sanghi & Another versus Sanghi Poly Zips and 10 others. The fifth case was between Ravi Sanghi & Another versus Sanghi Industries & 8 others. The last case was between Girish Sanghi versus Sanghi Cements & Another. On Thursday, the NCLT's Hyderabad Bench presided by Hon'ble Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar (President) and Veera Brahma Rao Arekapudi (Member-Technical) have referred six cases relating to family dispute of Sanghi brothers and multiple corporate entities into cement, synthetics, polyzips, zippers, among others to the newly floated International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC) at Hyderabad.

In a statement on Thursday, the NCLT Deputy Registrar K Hanumantha Rao said the disputes were being referred for resolution to IAMC after taking the consent of the disputing parties and the able assistance of their respective counsels. The IAMC at Hyderabad was inaugurated by the Chief Justice of India justice NV Ramana last Saturday. The long-litigated corporate disputes among the Sanghi family members and the corporate entities controlled by them revolved around the appointments and removal of some of the directors, resolutions adopted at various board meetings and general meetings, and amendments to Articles of Association, among others. While some of the brothers of Sanghi family challenged the decisions, few others supported those corporate decisions with allegations of manipulations and fraudulent acts in the shareholding that allegedly violated the fiduciary duties by those at the helm of affairs. During the course of hearing of the cases by the NCLT Bench at Hyderabad over the years, two of the brothers have reconciled with Ravi Sanghi by way of a settlement.

At present, the dispute is between Girish Sanghi and other brothers, said the NCLT Bench in its order on Thursday, while referring the dispute to the IAMC at Hyderabad.