24. Point of Law : One notice in contradistinction to giving a shorter period in another notice for shares of the same company that are pledged with the defendant does not stand to reason and is accordingly rejected by me. In my view, having given notice for 15 days (which is a reasonable period) in one notice, the defendant should have also given a period of 15 days in the other notice

ORDER :

Shekhar B. Saraf, J.

The present application being I.A. G.A. No. 1 of 2021 in C.S. No. 138 of 2021 has been preferred by the petitioner for seeking an order of injunction to restrain the respondent from dealing with or selling the securities pledged by the petitioner for securing certain financial facilities. After hearing the above application, an ad-interim ex-parte order dated August 3, 2021 was passed by this Hon'ble Court restraining the respondent from selling the pledged securities. Thereafter, a vacating application being I.A. G.A. No. 2 of 2021 in C.S. No 138 of 2021 has been preferred by the respondent in terms of the liberty granted in the order dated August 3, 2021. Both the applications were accordingly heard together.

2. The relevant facts to decide the present interlocutory applications are delineated as follows:

(a) The petitioner, Manav Investment & Trading Company Limited, is a common promoter of the companies, namely Birla Tyres Limited (hereinafter referred as "BTL") and Kesoram Industries Limited (hereinafter referred as "KIL"). The erstwhile Laxmi Vilas Bank (hereinafter referred as "LVB") had extended a Term Loan facility (hereinafter referred to as "TL facility") and a Working Capital Facility (hereinafter referred to as "WC facility") to KIL. Later on, the business of KIL was demerged into a new entity namely BTL after a Scheme of Arrangement sanctioned by the National Company Law Tribunal, Kolkata Bench on 8th November, 2019 and the erstwhile LVB amalgamated with the respondent, DBS Bank India Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "DBIL").

(b) Pursuant to the demerger, the TL facility and the WC facility availed by KIL were bifurcated and partly transferred to BTL. A Facility Agreement governing the said transferred "TL facility" was executed on February 11, 2021 between BTL as the borrower and the banks and financial institutions (including DBIL) as the lenders, a total 31,75,000 BTL equity shares were pledged for the purpose of such transferred "TL facility". Thereafter, the petitioner/plaintiff as the promoter executed a Promoter Undertaking on February 15, 2021 wherein the pledged shares of KIL towards Working Capital Facility were released by DBIL and the petitioner as a common promoter of KIL and BTL pledged a further 31,75,000 equity shares of BTL (New BTL Pledged shares) in favour of DBIL. The petitioner/plaintiff as a Security Owner also executed an Agreement of Pledge of Shares and other securities held in dematerialized form in favour of DBIL on April 16, 2021.

(c) According to the Pledge Agreement, there are two sets of pledge shares for the facilities availed by BTL from DBIL. The first set of the BTL pledged shares (hereinafter referred to as "Old BTL pledged shares") were pledged by the petitioner in favour of DBIL to secure the Term Loan which is governed by the terms of the Pledge Agreement and the Facility Agreement dated February 11, 2021 entered into between BTL and DBIL. The second set of the BTL pledged shares (hereinafter referred to as "New BTL pledged shares") were pledged by the plaintiff in favour of DBIL to secure the "WC Facility". The New BTL pledged shares are governed by the Pledged Agreement read with the Promoter Undertaking.

(d) Since BTL defaulted in repaying the facilities granted by DBIL, on July 17, 2021, DBIL issued a notice of event of default and recall of the "TL Facility" to BTL. The outstanding amount claimed under this notice was INR 37,99,07,537/- (Thirty-Seven Crores Ninety Nine Lakhs Seven Thousand Five Hundred thirty seven only). On the same day, that is, July 17, 2021 another notice of event of default and recall of the "WC Facility" was issued by DBIL to BTL and an outstanding amount of INR 28,19,35,329/- (Twenty-Eight Crores Nineteen Lakhs Thirty-Five Thousand Three Hundred Twenty-Nine only) was claimed towards repayment of this loan. The two notices of recalling and event of default addressed to BTL provided for a time period of 2 days (i.e. from July