Shivinder to withdraw case against Malvinder
MEDIATION PLAN Mother’s advice behind Shivinder’s move, shows NCLT filing NEWDELHI:
Former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh on Thursday said he has decided to withdraw his petition in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against elder brother Malvinder Mohan Singh and ex-Religare chief Sunil Godhwani, as desired by their mother.
Shivinder had earlier this month filed an application before the Delhi bench of the NCLT alleging that collective and ongoing actions of Malvinder and Godhwani led to a systemic undermining of the interests of the companies and their shareholders.
Confirming the move, Shivinder told Press Trust of India :“I have applied to withdraw the petition before NCLT, that is coming up for hearing.”
“There is a mediation process that has been kicked off and if it does not work I have the option of refiling it,” he added.
In his application before NCLT, Shivinder has said: “The mother of petitioner no. 2 (Shivinder) and respondent no. 2 (Malvinder) has requested both her sons to engage in mediation led by family elders respected by both her sons with a view to them settling inter se issues between them.”
The application further said: “Out of respect for their mother, the parties have already started mediation and as per the request of the mediators to constructively progress the mediation, the petitioners wish to withdraw the petition, without prejudice to their rights and contentions.”
Shivinder’s counsel Ranjana R Gawai said the petition is not withdrawn yet but getting withdrawn because the ailing mother wants to get this matter sorted out within domestic forum through mediation.
Passing an interim order over Shivinder’s earlier plea, the principal bench of NCLT on September 6 directed to maintain status quo over the shareholdings and composition of RHC Holding board.
As on August 27, Malvinder and Shivinder were the promoters of Religare on behalf of PS Trust while RHC Finance and RHC Holding were the promoter groups, according to data availa- ble on bourses.
The tribunal had also issued notice to Malvinder along with Godhwani and other respondents over Shivinder’s petition alleging “oppression and mismanagement” of RHC Holding.
It had also allowed both parties—Shivinder Singh and his wife Aditi Singh—and other party Malvinder Singh to inspect documents and take photocopies of the records of RHC Holding.
In a statement on September 4, Shivinder distanced himself from alleged irregularities and decisions taken in the past two years at the hospital chain.
He also sought to disassociate himself from his elder brother, saying that he had “all along been the publicly supportive younger brother to Malvinder’s chairmanship of the group, who took decisions on behalf of the family”.
“While it saddens me immensely and I wish Malvinder well; I can no longer be party to activities in which transparency and ethics are continuously and consistently negated,” he said.
“It has come to a point where this means that I am now disassociating from my brother as a business partner and will be pursuing an independent path going forward.”