MUMBAI: A division bench of the Bombay High Court (HC) set aside a single-judge order that restrained Invesco Developing Markets Fund, Zee Entertainment’s (Zee) largest shareholder, to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders for removing the company’s MD & CEO Punit Goenka.
The HC, however, directed three weeks of status quo on the matter. The written copy of the judgement was awaited till the time of going to press. The three weeks’ time would be used by Zee to appeal against the HC order in the apex court. The Zee stock corrected 3.2% to Rs 248.55 apiece post Tuesday’s judgement, which came during market hours. Noting that the requisition notice by Invesco to the Zee board for holding the EGM was neither illegal nor incapable of being set aside, the High Court quashed the single judge’s order on all counts.
Invesco, which holds close to 18% in Zee, had in September last year sent a requisition notice to the Zee board of directors to convene an EGM on the ground of the company’s operations not running as smoothly as desired. It sought the removal of Goenka and two other directors. When Zee refused to respond to the requisition, Invesco moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai, which directed Zee to consider the requisition notice in accordance with law.Zee moved the Bombay HC on the ground of Invesco’s requisition notice being illegal and invalid.
A single-judge bench of Justice GS Patel in October last year granted an interim injunction against the holding of an EGM. Invesco then filed an appeal against the interim injunction order, saying HC had no jurisdiction to hear the matter, which should have been heard and decided by the tribunal. In December 2021, Sony Pictures Network India inked a deal to merge with Zee.