No relief to Dish TV on Yes Bank vote issue: NCLT says ‘not inclined’ to interfere

Hearing on a petition filed by Trilok Chand Jindal, the authorised representative of shareholders of Dish TV, seeking to restrain Yes Bank from voting at the December 30 meeting, the tribunal said it was “not inclined” to stay or interfere with the process.

Yes Bank currently holds around 24.19% in Dish TV, after it invoked promoters’ pledged shares on May 29 last year. On September 23 this year, Yes Bank, as the largest shareholder in the company, requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders to vote on the removal of Jawahar Goel, promoter and MD of Dish TV, along with other directors from the board.

Agencies

While the matter is currently pending with the court, Dish TV’s AGM is scheduled on December 30, during which the re-appointment of Ashok Kurien on the board is one of the agenda items. Yes Bank is against Kurien’s reappointment.

Counsel for Dish TV shareholders sought a direction from the tribunal to Yes Bank restraining it from voting, particularly to the resolution with regards to re-appointment of the board members.

However, the division bench of Suchitra Kanuparthi and Anuradha Bhatia in an oral order refused to give any relief to the plaintiffs and adjourned the case to January 4.

Appearing for the shareholders’ group, senior advocate Soli Cooper argued that Yes Bank wants to ensure that Dish TV’s ₹1,000 crore rights issue doesn’t go through. He also pointed out that the lender became a shareholder by way of invoking the pledge and was now trying to call for an EGM for a board reconstitution.

“We want to restrain the lender from bringing such a resolution. The calling of an EGM for the removal of all the board members is totally prejudicial to us,” argued Cooper. “We don’t want them to vote on the re-appointment of the board member.”

Appearing for Dish TV, senior advocate Arun Kathpalia submitted that the company is supporting the petition filed by the shareholders in the tribunal.

However, Venkatesh Dhond, senior counsel appearing for Yes Bank, argued that this is the third such attempt by the promoters to restrain the lender from calling an EGM and exercising its rights. “The AGM will proceed as per the agenda floated by the company itself. The resolution that the shareholders are referring to are not even part of the AGM’s agenda,” Dhond said.