In this appeal the parties will be described in the same way as in the Company petition (C.P. 7/2009) before the Company Law Board, which is under Sections 397 and 398 of the Companies Act, 1956. The reference to petitioners means Bijay Kumar Kajaria and his group, whereas the reference to Respondents means Ajay Kumar Kajaria, Sanjay Kajaria and their group.

2. It appears that at quite a mature stage of hearing of the company petition before the Board, the first respondent made an application (C.A. No. 366 of 2011) before it. They wanted dismissal of the petition on the ground of maintainability. To be more specific, according to them the disputes which were before the Board were purely private disputes between shareholders. They did not involve any act of the company or of mismanagement or oppression of shareholders or a body of them. They also wanted, in the alternative, vacation of the status quo order passed by the Company Law Board on 24th March, 2009. The status quo order was with regard to the share capital, shareholding, composition of the board and fixed assets of the company Murlidhar Ratanlal Exports ltd. (MREL).

GROUNDS:

3. There were several grounds urged to se