Interim mandatory injunction and internal company management dispute left to statutory forum; no interim relief granted.

Interim mandatory injunction is granted only in exceptional cases to restore the status quo ante, not to change an existing course of dealings. Because the plaintiffs sought to alter the arrangement for MRV returns rather than preserve it, the requested interim relief was refused. The dispute was also characterised as one concerning the internal management and accounts of the company, and proceedings under section 397 of the Companies Act, 1956 were already pending before the Company Law Board. The matter was therefore left to that statutory forum, and the application for interim relief was dismissed without costs.

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Issues: (i) Whether an interim mandatory injunction could be granted to compel acceptance of the plaintiffs' MRV return and to alter the existing course of dealings between the parties; (ii) whether the dispute, being one concerning the internal affairs of the company, should be left to the Company Law Board in proceedings under section 397 of the Companies Act, 1956.

Issue (i): Whether an interim mandatory injunction could be granted to compel acceptance of the plaintiffs' MRV return and to alter the existing course of dealings between the parties.

Analysis: An interim mandatory injunction is granted only in exceptional cases to restore status quo ante. The material placed before the Court showed that, until the challenged communication, MRV returns for all publications were being sent under a common covering letter signed by defendant No. 2, and the plaintiffs were attempting to change that existing arrangement through the interim application. Granting the requested relief would not preserve the then-existing position but would disturb it.

Conclusion: The interim mandatory injunction was not warranted and the request for such relief failed.

Issue (ii): Whether the dispute, being one concerning the internal affairs of the company, should be left to the Company Law Board in proceedings under section 397 of the Companies Act, 1956.

Analysis: The controversy was essentially about the internal management and accounts of the company. Since proceedings under section 397 of the Companies Act, 1956 were already pending before the Company Law Board, that forum was the appropriate one for adjudication of the dispute rather than grant of interim directions in the present proceeding.

Conclusion: The dispute was treated as one falling within the internal management sphere and was left to the Company Law Board.

Final Conclusion: No interim relief was justified, and the application was dismissed without costs.

Ratio Decidendi: Interim mandatory relief will be refused where it would alter rather than restore the existing state of affairs, particularly when the dispute concerns internal company management and an appropriate statutory forum is already seized of the matter.

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