Mumbai: The Nationwide Firm Legislation Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has upheld an order by the Nationwide Firm Legislation Tribunal (NCLT) in November 2023 that put aside the ‘fraudulent’ switch of the Smaaash model by founder Shripal Morakhia. “The order dated 22 November 2023 continues to be operative”, stated a bench led by justices Ashok Bhushan and Arun Baroka.
The November order by the Mumbai bench of the NCLT revoked the switch of the ‘Smaaash’ model’s possession, deeming Morakhia’s act “fraudulent” and directing that the model be returned to the bankrupt Smaaash Leisure Pvt Ltd (SEPL).
The tribunal’s order got here after Bhrugesh Amin, the decision skilled of Smaaash, filed a petition to annul, rescind, cancel the back-dated deed settlement signed between Smaaash and Enjoyable Gateway in April 2022.
In his plea earlier than the NCLT, Amin requested the tribunal to restrain Morakhia from transferring the ‘Smaaash’ trademark to privately owned Enjoyable Gateway Enviornment Pvt Ltd after it was discovered that the model was transferred via a back-dated deed of task signed in 2022. He additionally requested that Enjoyable Gateway be restrained from utilizing or coping with any model content material of Smaaash, together with the corporate’s logos.
The NCLT stated in its order that Morakhia and his affiliate corporations colluded to syphon off important and useful belongings of the corporate, together with the model content material and the Smaaash logos via the 2022 task settlement.
“This fraudulent motion of the erstwhile administration of the corporate had denuded the worth of the corporate and is more likely to considerably scale back the monetary proposal provided by the possible bidders/decision candidates in direction of the acquisition of the bancrupt agency beneath a decision plan”, the bench stated.
It added, “Since fraud vitiates every thing, this tribunal is happy to direct Enjoyable Gateway to return all the advantages earned by it on account of utilization of the model content material.”
Enjoyable Gateway then moved the appeals courtroom, difficult the November order. Nevertheless, it later withdrew the enchantment, which led the NCLAT to dismiss the matter.
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Revealed: 14 Apr 2024, 02:33 PM IST
Supply: Live Mint