The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended till November 18, the status quo order issued by it on a suit seeking a permanent injunction against the United News of India from transferring its shares to Mediavest, any other company or individuals.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday extended till November 18, the status quo order issued by it on a suit seeking a permanent injunction against the United News of India from transferring its shares to Mediavest, any other company or individuals.
Justice Rekha Sharma extended the order after Senior Counsel for the UNI management A S Chandhiok contended that the company had effected transfer of the 51 per cent shares in favour of Mediavest, prior to filing of the suit.
However, since the Registrar of Companies has not endorsed its approval for the purported transfer of shares the court ordered status quo on the matter till November 18, when it would be taken up for further hearing.
As no representative or counsel appeared on behalf of the Registrar of Companies, Justice Sharma announced she would proceed "ex parte" in the matter.
The court had on September 29 passed the injunction order on a complaint from Bhopal-based newspaper group Sandhya Prakash Limited that challenged the reported transfer of UNI's ownership rights to Mediavest on the ground it was "illegal, fraudulent, arbitrary and lacked transparency."
Counsels Rajiv Nayyar and Rajiv Bansal appearing for plaintiff company alleged that the UNI management had transferred the shares to Mediavest overlooking the claim of SPL that happened to be the highest bidder offering Rs 40 crore for the takeover transaction as against the Rs 32 crore offered by the rival bidder.
Moreover, Bansal alleged that the transfer of shares to Mediavest reportedly effected on August 31, 2006 was illegal and fraudulent as the company was neither an owner nor owners of newspapers in India as stipulated in the Articles of Association of UNI.
According to SPL, the takeover bid by Mediavest was made with the intention of strengthening and adding value to the Daily News & Analysis newspaper, which has been launched by the Essel and Bhaskar groups.
Quoting news reports, SPL alleged that the Essel group proposed to close down UNI as a news agency and instead plans to use the infrastructure exclusively for DNA, in which the group has investment interests.
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