New Delhi: The company law tribunal, NCLT on Friday suspended all the eight directors of realty firm Unitech over allegations of mismanagement and siphoning of funds, while authorising the government to appoint its 10 nominees on the board.
In a rare move, the government approached the NCLT to take over the management with a view to protecting the interest of nearly 20,000 home buyers.
The government's intervention in this case comes almost a decade after it had taken over the board of IT firm Satyam (now Tech Mahindra) and sold it to Mahindras'.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) said the government must give name of its nominees by December 20, while restraining Unitech's eight suspended directors from selling their personal and company properties.
The tribunal's order came after the government filed a petition arguing that Unitech was a fit case for winding up but considering the interest of thousands of home buyers and small depositors, it wanted to take over company management.
A two-member NCLT bench headed by Chairman Justice M M Kumar also directed the government to give 10 names by December 20, the next date of hearing.
While Unitech was not represented during the morning hearing, in the afternoon the firm moved the tribunal challenging its order saying that no "coercive steps for execution" can be taken in view of a November 20 order of the Supreme Court.
However, the tribunal refused to keep in abeyance its order to suspend the incumbent directors of Unitech Ltd and said the government appointed directors would comply with all the orders of the Supreme Court.
As per the company's website, the directors are Chairman Ramesh Chandra, managing directors Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra; Minoti Bahri, Sunil Rekhi, Chanderkant Jain, Dilip Kumar Malhotra and Virender Kumar Bhutani. "This order, already passed shall be subject to compliance of all orders of Supreme court," said the NCLT bench headed by Chairman Justice M M Kumar.