Dunlop gets temporary reprieve on winding-up order
The firm has promised to deposit Rs10 crore with the court by Saturday
Kolkata: Tyre maker Dunlop India Ltd, which was ordered to be wound up by the Calcutta high court for its inability to repay debts, secured a temporary reprieve by promising to deposit Rs10 crore with the court by Saturday.
An appeals court on Friday stayed last month’s winding-up order till 18 February after Dunlop’s lawyers said that the company would deposit the amount with a branch of State Bank of India on Saturday.
The division bench judges had insisted on the money being deposited as proof of Dunlop’s “intent" to repay its creditors.
They had initially given the company time till Wednesday, but agreed to extend this deadline by two days. On Friday, Dunlop’s lawyers said the money would be deposited by Saturday.
“We are only giving (Dunlop) some breathing space—some oxygen before their prayer is heard again," said Girish Gupta, one of the two judges of the appeals court.
Lawyers for Madura Coats, one of the company’s unsecured creditors, however, said that granting a stay on the winding-up order would seriously impair the chances of recovering properties illegitimately alienated by Dunlop.
ICICI Bank, which lent to the Ruia Group against the mortgage of properties formerly owned by the tyre maker, also intervened. The Ruia Group controls Dunlop, having bought a controlling stake in it in 2005. The appeals court said it would “consider (ICICI Bank’s) interests".
Dunlop last year filed a case against HT Media Ltd, the publisher of Mint, the newspaper’s editor and a reporter, alleging criminal defamation over a news report published in April. The case is being contested in a Kolkata court.
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