The Calcutta High Court has dismissed a petition filed by one Shambhu Nath Jajodia, styled as a Public Interest Litigation, seeking an investigation into the affairs of a private limited company and a direction to take appropriate steps against persons involved in fraudulent transactions.
The petitioner also sought an interim prayer to freeze the assets of certain private respondents.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya held that the petition was not maintainable, as the petitioner had already approached the National Company Law Tribunal, Kolkata Bench, for identical relief.
The court observed the petitioner cannot pursue parallel remedies before the National Company Law Tribunal and the High Court, especially when the relief sought is identical.
The advocate for the petitioner argued that there are several decisions of the Supreme Court that have carved out exceptions to the rule that alternate remedy is always a bar to a litigant approaching the court by way of Public Interest Litigation.
However, the court was not impressed by this argument, as the petitioner had not approached the court at the first instance.
The court held that if the proposition advocated by the advocate for the petitioner were to be accepted, the constitutional courts would be flooded with PILs, considering cases ordering investigations into the affairs of private limited companies or public limited companies that have gone into liquidation.
The court observed that this cannot be the role of a constitutional court exercising jurisdiction to entertain PIL petitions.
In the result, the writ petition was dismissed with costs of Rs 1000 payable to the West Bengal State Legal Services Authority.
The court also refused to issue a direction to the National Company Law Tribunal, Kolkata Bench, to expedite the matter pending before the tribunal, as the petitioner’s remedy is available before the tribunal.
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