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2016 Supreme(P&H) 519

IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA
Before
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice K. Kannan
C.R. No.1330 of 2015 (O&M)
Gurcharan Singh Syal & Anr.
v.
Sonica Malhotra & Anr.
{Decided on 01/03/2016}

For the Petitioner:Mr. S.S. Narula, Mr. Sarju Puri, Advocates.
For the Respondent:Mr. Gurminder Singh, Senior Advocate with Mr. Aman Pal, Mr. Rajan Kohli, Advocates.

Headnote:(A) Civil Procedure Code, 1908, O.21 R.32--Execution of Decree--Civil Imprisonment--Reduction in Sentence--In disobedience of Company Law Board judgment debtors intentionally withheld the important documents relating to company which would surely hamper the due management of the company--Sentence of 3 months reduced to 1 month along with attachment of properties worth Rs.5 crores. (Para 13)

       (B) Civil Procedure Code, 1908, O.21 R.32--Civil Prison--Decree of specific performance can be enforced by detention in civil prison, or attachment of property of the person against whom such decree is passed, if such person, having had an opportunity to obey it, willfully fails to do so--What is willful failure or disobedience is a question of fact, to be decided on the merits of each case. (Para 12)

JUDGMENT

Mr. K. Kannan J.:- The Revision Petition is against the orders of the Additional District Judge, Jalandhar, dated 05.02.2015 whereby on an application under Order XXI Rule 32 CPC, the petitioners have been ordered to be detained in civil imprisonment for three months for having failed to comply with the Order of the Company Law Board, Principal Bench, New Delhi (“CLB”) dated 09.12.2013, insofar as complete records of the company Krishna Real Estate Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. have not been supplied by them to the respondents in pursuance of that order. The petitioners shall be interchangeably referred to defendants, Sayals and judgment-debtors. The respondents shall be referred interchangeably as decree holders and Malhotras.

2. The respondents had filed Company Petition No. 48 (N.D.) of 2012 before the CLB against the petitioner defendants complaining oppression and mismanagement of the affairs of Krishna Real Estate Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., under sections 397, 398, 399, 402 and 403 of the Companies Act, 1956. The said petition was allowed by the CLB by an order dated 09.12.2013 directing the defendants, inter alia, to hand over the physical possession of the company’s assets as well as all kinds of management of the company, which remained with them, to the Malhotras. It was also held that the defendants were answerable to the Board for the accounts they maintained from the date of A.K. Malhotra’s death (on 30.12.2009). Consequently, in pursuance of the CLB order, certain documents and records were handed over to the respondents in the presence of the Administrator-cum-Facilitator. However, it was the contention of the decree holders that the entire records of the company, since inception, were not handed over and that the defendants were still in possession of other records crucial to the company’s management, which they were willfully and intentionally withholding. The judgment debtors, on the other hand, state that whatever records they had since the inception of the company (in 1997) which were in their possession have been handed over to the respondents, in line with the CLB Order.

3. The court below, acting as Execution Court of the CLB order, detailed the documents which according to him were still being retained by the judgment debtors, and assessed their conduct to be in disobedience of the direction contained in the CLB order to hand over the management and has ordered the judgment debtors to be arrested for a period of three months. In revision, there has been an interim order of stay and the matter requires consideration of whether there is any serious fallibility about the factual reference of deliberate nonproduction for interference in civil revision and also examine if it is true, the non-production of records could constitute failure to hand over the management of the affairs of the company. If yes again, whether the punishment accorded commensurate with the misconduct of disobedience of the decree attributed to the petitioners.

4. On 27.01.2006, after considerable arguments of counsel for both sides, I directed the counsel to take fresh instructions to produce the documents found by the Court below to have retained by them. I had kept in mind that the company’s business was to establish a hotel and to that end, develop the necessary infrastructure by purchasing property, award contracts for completion of works, make statutory compliances for moneys spent by production of balance sheets, maintaining several registers for proper management of the company etc. Admittedly, it is a closely held company with the Malhotras contributing about Rs.7.95 crores, while the Syals had purported to have contributed Rs.43.90 lacs, of which Rs.25 lacs was being admitted by the Malhotras.

5. It is an admitted fact that the core asset of the company, which is the land and aborted construction of the edifice of hotel have b

















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