HC allows Anil Nanda to file amended petition

Goetze chairman Anil Nanda (pictured) has been allowed to file an amended petition as he had submitted before the Delhi High Court that Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC), which used to be a society registered in Delhi, was never converted into a company.

Nanda has to file an amended petition within two weeks. Justice Anil Kumar said, "The inevitable inference is that the amendment is necessary for the determination of real controversies between the parties and the changes would not change the basic nature of the suit."

Nanda, the estranged brother of Escorts chairman Rajan Nanda, had in September 2005 challenged the conversion of EHIRC from a charitable institution into a company (non-charitable). Around the same time, Rajan Nanda had sold EHIRC to Fortis Health Care Limited.

However, while allowing the amended petition, the court has imposed a penalty of Rs 20,000 on Goetze chairman for the delay caused on account of the proposed amendment.

Anil Nanda, in an affidavit filed before the high court, had stated that the Delhi-based society, registered as a charitable body, could not have been amalgamated with the Chandigarh-based non-charitable society (Heart Institute and Reseach Centre) in April 2000.

While producing the documents, Anil had alleged that the permission to amalgamate the Delhi society with the Chandigarh society was granted in June 6, 2001 and on that date the amalgamation could not have been effected since the Chandigarh society had ceased to exist from November 30, 2000.

Anil and his company Goetze (India) Ltd had moved the court in September alleging that the hospital was being sold violating all rules and regulations as it was established as a charitable institute.

Besides, he had sought appointment of an independent committee appointed by the court to look into the misappropriation and dilution of EHIRC's assets and funds by the management.

The Chandigarh society, which was incorporated in May 2000, was in fact de-registered via a Registrar of Societies order dated November 27, 2000, Anil stated in its affidavit filed through counsel P K Bansal.

The inspection of the documents of the Registrar of Societies, Delhi and Chandigarh, revealed that the defendants (the Rajan Nanda group) had forged and fabricated the resolutions dated January 15 and February 26, 2000 "in order to give credence to the story of the amalgamation," it stated.