Ashneer Grover, former managing director of BharatPe, has moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Delhi, asking for a waiver of the minimum requirement under the Companies Act so that he can pursue alleged oppression and mismanagement at the company.
The NCLT issued a notice in the plea and sought BharatPe's response to it. The case is now likely to come up for hearing in April 2024.
Grover's plea alleges that the majority shareholders of the company are oppressing the minority shareholders of the company. He also claimed that the decisions made by BharatPe's majority shareholders have not yielded results.
As per the Companies Act 2013, a shareholder must have at least 10 percent of the “issued share capital of the company”, or 1/10th of its total number of members, whichever is less to pursue a plea of oppression and mismanagement. However, Grover holds roughly 8.4 percent of BharatPe's share capital. The NCLT has the power to waive the requirement if it is satisfied that a genuine case is made out.
Grover's plea
The plea alleges that Grover was ousted from the company in an 'arbitrary manner in excess exercise of powers in order clawback his restrictive shares illegally and without complying with the law.'
Grover alleges that the arbitrary conduct of the board of directors of the company is demonstrated by them sending him on leave last year over a 'fabricated issue that had nothing to do with the company. The plea also states that the oppression and mismanagement of the company is evident from the exit of various key members from the company including its founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). According to the plea, the actions of the company through its board of directors have caused huge losses to the company.
The plea has been filed under Sections 241 and 242 of the Companies Act 2013. Section 241 empowers a member of the company to move NCLT if "the affairs of the company have been or are being conducted in a manner prejudicial to the public interest or in a manner prejudicial". Section 242 deals with the powers of the tribunal.
Since the beginning of 2022, the four-year-old company has been embroiled in controversy after its founder Ashneer Grover was accused of using inappropriate language and threatening a Kotak Group employee for failing to secure allotment and funding for the Nykaa IPO for himself and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover.
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