TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (2) TMI 1329
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.... company revenue. The consolidated revenue of the petitioner company for the year ending 31.03.2016 was Rs. 412,042.48 lacs. The audited accounts of the petitioner company for the financial years 2013-14, 2014-15 and the audited results for the financial year 2015-16 are at Annexure-II (Colly). 3. It was stated that the company started accepting the deposits from the public since April, 2013 under the Companies Act, 1956 and Companies Act, 2013 and had been repaying the principal amount as well as the agreed rate of interest regularly without any delay. 4. It was stated that there was a jewellers strike initiated against 1% increase in the excise duty in Budget of the financial year 2016-17, which impacted the jewellery business causing huge loss of revenue and profitability resulting into cash crunch and liquidation issue. During the financial year 2015-16, the company kept on repaying the depositors regularly till the middle of April, 2016. The quarterly tabulated financial performance of the petitioner company during the financial year 2015-16 was as under: (Rupees in Lakh) Financial year 2015-16 Revenue including other income Profits After Tax Quarter ended....
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....n the year 2013-14 the petitioner company earned profit of Rs. 4275.01 lacs; in the financial year 2014-15, Rs. 3881.39 lacs and for the financial year 2015-16, the profit was Rs. 1597.77 lacs. 8. By an order dated 23.08.2016, National Company Law Tribunal, Delhi Bench (for brevity NCLT Delhi) directed the petitioner to place on record the projected profit and loss statements and the balance sheets of the company for the next three years i.e. 2017, 2018 and 2019. It was also directed to place on record the statement with regard to the deposits taken from various depositors under the Companies Act, 1956 and Companies Act, 2013. It was noted that publication of hearing of this petition was made in the newspapers; The Statesman, Pioneer and Veer Arjun (Hindi Edition) on 06.07.2016. 9. The petitioner company filed the aforesaid statements in the NCLT, Delhi, on 07.09.2016 with the affidavit of Mr. Anil Jindal, the Executive Chairman of the company. As per the projected profit and loss account for these three future years, the revenue from operations in the year 2016-17 is projected as Rs. 3219.63 crores; for 2017-18 Rs. 3594.57 crores and for the next financial year 2018-19 the p....
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..... All FDs which have matured upto 30th September, 2016 shall be repaid together with the interest in the following manner: (a) 30% in six months' time i.e. from October, 2016 to April, 2017; (b) 30% within the next six months; (c) Balance 40% within three months thereafter. 4. In terms of the above, it is undertaken that the entire liability of fixed deposits which have matured upto 30thSeptember, 2016 would be liquidated within a span of 15 months i.e. by December, 2017. 5. It is further undertaken that interest on the aforesaid amounts shall be given periodically at the rate of 11.75% simple interest by way of post-dated cheques. These cheques shall be automatically dispatched to the depositors without awaiting return of the earlier cheques which the depositors may be holding. Subject to dispatch of the new cheques, the previous cheques may be cancelled unless they are the subject matter of any court proceedings. The repayment of the principal amount shall also be sent by way of post-dated cheques to mitigate the harassment to the depositors. Affidavit of the Managing Director be filed in respect of dispatch of all overdue cheques with....
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....d of every quarter. 16. I have heard the learned senior counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel for some of the represented depositors and carefully perused the record. 17. Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner company is making very sincere efforts for making payment to the fixed deposit holders in terms of the order dated 20.10.2016, but the company is still having liquidity problems. It was submitted that out of about 5,000 total number of depositors, 1100 have been completely paid their dues and for the remaining 3990 depositors, the company would clear the entire amount by the next year. 18. It was further submitted that the petitioner-company paid about Rs. 17 crores during the last year and in any case, if the preference is to be given to the senior citizens, necessary directions may be issued to take care of their issues. The detail of payments made to different depositors for the period from 05.09.2017 to 20.09.2017 has been given and it was submitted that an amount of about Rs. 42 lacs has been paid during the said period. The list referred to by the learned senior counsel shows that this pertains to about 189 and 24 m....
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....the petitioner, as observed in the order dated 24.01.2017, that though the payment of Rs. 27 lacs was made towards the principal amount for the first quarter and interest amounting to Rs. 90 lacs and Rs. 36 lacs as per the details furnished, but the compliance falls far below the schedule of the Scheme approved. It was observed by NCLT Delhi Bench that it was made abundantly clear at the time of approval of Scheme of repayment, that further extension of the Scheme would be strictly in accordance with due compliance to be reviewed quarterly. It was further observed that as the company has seriously defaulted, there is no reason for further extension. However, learned counsel for the petitioner company sought one week's time for having further instructions and for recalling the statement of the Managing Director. 22. On 02.02.2017, it was submitted that adherence to the Scheme was derailed and became beyond the control of the company because of the demonetization. The Bench observed that this factor cannot be overlooked and disregarded being a major obstacle in disbursing the money to the investors in terms of the scheme. It was, therefore, prayed for extension of time for making ....
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....interest of the senior citizens while issuing further directions. 27. In this regard, the Executive Chairman of the petitioner company stated in his affidavit dated 01.02.2017 before NCLT New Delhi, where the matter was then pending, that though the petitioner company is engaged in the diversified business portfolio comprising of Gold and Jewellery (retail, wholesale and manufacturing), Cinema Exhibition, Retail, Hotel and Food & Beverages etc. directly and through its subsidiaries, but for the purpose of repayment to the depositors, the company would be utilizing the sale proceeds of the Cinema business carried out by the company. In the said affidavit, it was stated that the sale of the Cinema Halls would be undertaken under the overall supervision and monitoring of State Bank of India and advisory of SBI Capital Markets Limited and Asset Sale Committee. These facts were thus brought to the notice of the Tribunal about 11 months ago, but huge time has since elapsed, but nothing concrete seems to have progressed. So, there is absolutely no reason to accept the aforesaid contention on behalf of the petitioner. The company having earned huge profits in the previous years and proj....
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....to repay the deposit or part thereof or any interest thereon within the time specified in sub-section (1) or such further time as may be allowed by the Tribunal under sub-section (2), the company shall, in addition to the payment of the amount of deposit or part thereof and the interest due, be punishable with fine which shall not be less than one crore rupees but which may extend to ten crore rupees and every officer of the company who is in default shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to seven years or with fine which shall not be less than twenty-five lakh rupees, but which may extend to two crore rupees, or with both." 30. The provisions of Section 74 of 2013 Act came into force w.e.f. 01.04.2014. It is to be noticed that if a company fails to repay the deposit or part thereof or any interest thereon within time specified in sub-section (1) or such further time as may be allowed by the Tribunal under sub-section (2), the company, in addition to the payment of the amount deposit or part thereof and the interest due, is liable for 'punishment' with fine which shall not be less than one crore rupees but which may extend to ten crore rupees and every officer of....
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....urther extension of two years for making payment of the amount due, but not paid as on 31.08.2017 i.e. the amount of deposits due as per the order of the NCLT Delhi Bench upto 31.08.2017 to be paid by 31.08.2019. It is further prayed in this affidavit that for the deposits payable from 01.09.2017 onwards, the extension of two years more may be granted in addition to the time granted while approving the Scheme on 20.10.2016. Such a prayer made in the matter, which stood disposed of on 20.10.2016 is absolutely not tenable. This would amount to second time extension, which in any case cannot be permissible. 35. In view of the above discussion, I find no ground for further indulgence in the matter and hold that the petitioner company is bound to comply with the orders dated 20.10.2016 for making payment to the depositors in accordance therewith as further clarified in the order dated 02.02.2017 whereby the extension of time with regard to components of interest and the principal amount was granted. 36. In view of the fact that the instant petition remained pending for quite some time, a direction is issued to the petitioner company to pay the upto date amount for which the petiti....