BEFORE THE SECURITIES APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
MUMBAI
Appeal No. 107 of 2012
Date of decision: 04.07.2012 Vikash Metal & Power Ltd.
21, Hemanta Basu Sarani, (Centre
Point), 3rd Floor, Room No 312,
Kolkata – 700 001.
… … Appellant Versus
National Stock Exchange of India Limited
Exchange Plaza, Bandra Kurla
Complex, Bandra (East),
Mumbai – 400 051.
…… R Mr. Vinay Chauhan, Advocate for the Appellant.
Mr. Sachin Chandrana, Advocate with Ms. Shambhavi Arjunwadkar, Advocate
for the Respondent.
CORAM : P. K. Malhotra, Member & Presiding Officer ( Offg .)
S. S. N. Moorthy, Member
Per : P. K. Malhotra (Oral)
The appellant before us is a company listed with the National Stock
Exchange. It has defaulted in filing its financial reports for the quarters ending
December 2011 and March 2012 within the stipulated period under Listing
Agreement. National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE), by its order dated
April 18, 2012 decided to suspend the trading in the equity shares of the company
with effect from April 26, 2012. The order further says that NSE may consider
revoking the suspension after the appellant complies with stipulated requirements
to the satisfaction of the NSE.
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- Aggrieved by the aforesaid order, the appellant has approached this
Tribunal stating that due to unexpected labour unrest not only the production
process has been affected but also disabled the company to get the correct
information on other matters including financial data of raw materials and cost
details relating to expenditure etc. Keeping in view the difficulty expressed by
the appellant, we stayed the operation of the impugned order by our order dated
April 25, 2012 and directed the appellant to file its financial results within a
period of one week from the date of the order. This time limit was fixed on the
assurance that the appellant will be in a position to comply with the requirements
within one week. The matter was fixed for hearing on May 10, 2012 when
another request for extension was made and time was sought up to June 30, 2012.
The request was again granted by us.
- Today, when the matter is taken up, the appellant has again come out with
a fresh request on the ground that the statutory auditor has resigned and the
appellant is not in a position to comply with the requirements of the Listing
Agreement.
- We are not inclined to grant this request any further. It is not denied by
the appellant that it has failed to comply with the requirements to file its
unaudited financial statements within the stipulated period as provided under
clause 41 of the Listing Agreement between the appellant and the NSE. This
Listing Agreement has statutory backing. The appellant had sought extension of
time from NSE vide its letter dated January 27, 2012. Again, by its letter dated
March 01, 2012 it sought extension of time for four weeks for finalisation of
quarterly financial results. When the apellant failed to file the quarterly financial
results in accordance with the Listing Agreement even after seeking two
extensions, NSE passed the impugned order. On appeal filed before this Tribunal,
and considering the difficulties expressed by the appellant, we also granted two
opportunities to the appellant. It was appellant ’ s own case that it will do the
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needful within stipulated period. This cannot go on indefinitely. The appellant
cannot be allowed to play with the system. Inspite of repeated opportunities given
to it, it has failed to comply with the statutory requirements. We, therefore, do
not find any fault with the impugned order issued by NSE against the appellant.
The appeal stands dismissed with no order as to costs.
Sd/-
P. K. Malhotra
Member &
Presiding Officer ( O ffg .)
Sd/-
S. S. N. Moorthy
Member 04.07.2012
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