HC admits wind-up plea against Duncan

Allowing an appeal filed by a US based Phosphate Chemicals Export Association Inc, (PCEA) for recovery of dues of over Rs 18 crore, the division bench of Justice A N Ray and Justice J Banerjee admitted the petition for winding up and ordered issue of the advertisement in one week.

The bench directed the company court to hear the petition and held that DIL was not in a position to pay the outstandings of the creditor.

P C Sen, Jishnu Saha, Debansu Basak and Avijit Guharoy, appearing for DIL, and Jayanta Mitra, Bikash Bhattacharyya, Shubharnsu Ganguly and Piyali Chakraborty, counsel for DIL's two employee unions, argued that if the petition was admitted and advertised, it would affect the standing of the company and be prejudicial to its interests.

They argued that DIL was working to improve its workings and needed time to pay off the dues of the creditor.

The bench rejected the contention of DIL and the workers' unions and observed that as no definite proposal for any payment was given by the company to the foreign creditor, there was no ground to allow any further time to DIL.

The dues of DIL's secured creditors was over Rs 652 crore, while the dues of unsecured creditors was over Rs 355 crore. The foreign company filed the winding up petition under section 433, 434 & 438 of the Companies Act in the company court.

Anindya Mitra and Chandranath Mukherjee, counsel for PCEA, said the creditor had entered into an agreement with DIL to supply 30,000 tonne diammonium phosphate (DAP) worth $5 million (approximately Rs 25 crore). DIL paid $2 million only.