ZEE shareholder Mad Man Film Ventures has filed another application before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Friday stating that Sony cannot pre-empt proceedings while the matter is pending before the tribunal.
Senior counsel Mustafa Doctor appearing for the shareholder argued, “They (Sony Pictures) are trying to get orders from the international tribunal. We are only saying, that during the pendency of the company application, this court restrains respondents from taking actions contrary to the operative order of sanctioning scheme, including taking steps contrary to the sanctioned scheme.”
Zee, Sony Pictures, and Bangla Entertainment are the respondents in the matter. This follows Sony’s decision to pursue arbitration before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.
Mad Man Film Ventures in its interim application stated “Sony cannot pre-empt proceedings pending before this court. I am one of the shareholders. Even assuming your arbitration continues there, you cannot have the sanction of the scheme set aside.”
The senior counsel added that the problem in that order is that it is conditional. Any other proceedings would be subject to the outcome of this. Moreover, last week, Sony failed to get an interim relief from the emergency arbitrator before the SIAC. Sony, in its application, asked the tribunal to prevent Zee from seeking legal remedies from the NCLT and other legal forums.
“We will continue to vigorously arbitrate the matter in Singapore in front of a full SIAC tribunal and pursue SPNI’s right to terminate the merger agreement and seek a termination fee and other remedies. We remain confident in the merits of our position in both Singapore and India,” Sony said in an official statement on 4 February.
On the other hand, Sony has vehemently objected to the maintainability of Mad Man’s application and pointed out that it has ‘no locus’ in the matter.
Darius Khambata, senior counsel representing Sony, argued “We are objecting to the maintainability of the petition. There may be five interim applications (IAs), all on the same points. That can be argued on 12 March. He can make the argument then. The same point will arise in all IAs. It is part of the previous IA. I am opposing their locus to come here. The court has rightly observed that there is condition satisfied. When they voted in favour of the scheme, they agreed. But now they are trying to rewrite the scheme.”
A bench led by Justice Laxmi Gurung said: “We are not in favour of granting relief to you right now. Granting relief now will lead to allowing the petition. So, we will call for responses from the respondents. This case is gaining national importance now. But the scheme is now sub-judice.”
The bench heard both the parties and posted it for further hearing on 12 March.
Mad Man Film Ventures had earlier filed an application for implementation of the merger between Zee and Sony. The tribunal has asked Sony to file its reply in the matter.