Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI): G. Mahalingam, Whole Time Member, did not find it suitable to pass any further directions in the matter. The Tribunal disposed of the show cause notice for the Noticees, however, for Mukkaram Jan (Noticee 3), ordered it to subsist in view of the stay by the Supreme Court in Special Leave to Appeal.
The present matter was initiated pursuant to the complaints received from the shareholders for non-payment of dividend by Cranes Software International Ltd. for the financial year 2008-2009. The Noticees while asserting that the dividend declared for the financial year 2008-2009 was already paid, submitted a certified certificate to that effect. The Company further stated that all the complaints, pursuant to which the present proceedings were initiated, have been resolved and disbursement of dividend has been made.
The violations for which Sections 11 and 11B were invoked in the show cause notice were:
- Failure of the Company to disburse the dividend declared; and
- Receipt of complaints from the shareholders consequent to the failure of the Company to disburse the dividend declared.
The Tribunal noted that the SEBI’s SCORES system had already closed on the payments and the prosecution was already been initiated by SEBI, in respect of delay in payment of dividend, and prosecution was already initiated for violation of Sections 205(1A), 205A(1) and 207 read with Sections 55A and 621 of Companies Act,1956 of the Companies Act, 1956 before the Court of Special Economic Offences in Bangalore. Therefore, after considering the show cause notice and the submissions made, the Tribunal confined the allegations to Noticees 1, 2 and 4-10, and not Noticee 3, Mukkaram Jan, owing to the stay granted by the Supreme Court.[Cranes Software International Ltd., In re, WTM/GM/EFD/DRA2/13329/2021-22, decided on 06-09-2021]
Agatha Shukla, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.
