Bombay High Court Imposes Costs On Judgement Debtor To Arbitral Award Owed To Sourav Ganguly, For Furnishing Incorrect Information.

Bombay High Court Imposes Costs On Judgement Debtor To Arbitral Award Owed To Sourav Ganguly, For Furnishing Incorrect Information.

The Bombay High Court imposed costs on Respondent – Company who were the judgement debtors to the arbitral award owed to Applicant – Sourav Chandidas Ganguly, for furnishing incorrect information.

The matter titled Sourav Chandidas Ganguly v. Percept Talent Management Ltd & Anr, was placed before a Single Judge Court of Justice A. K. Menon in the High Court of Bombay.

The Court made certain remarks against the Respondent – Company, while hearing this interim application of Applicant – Sourav Chandidas Ganguly pertaining to a petition wherein he sought Rs 36 crore payable to him according to a 2018-19 arbitral award by the judgement debtor who was arraigned as Respondent in this matter.

The Applicant submitted a certificate issued by the Respondent – Company's Chartered Accountant who had set out names of the directors as available on the portal of the Ministry of Corporate affairs. The said certificate contained one such Director – Harindra Pal Singh and the Court noted that this contradicted the previous statement of the Respondent wherein the Respondent had stated that Harindra Pal Singh was not a director.

Through this revelation of the director list, the Court observed that this revealed the Respondent's prima facie attempt to mislead this Court and made the following statement:

"In the circumstances, the Applicants have been forced to come to court repeatedly on the basis of incorrect and misappropriate instructions and therefore make improper submissions in Court."

The Respondent submitted that they would be submitting the share certificates within three weeks. The Income Tax Department further sought time to obtain instructions for computation of income and balance sheet and profit and loss account.

Thus, the Court made multiple directions regarding affidavits and accounts along with the direction on Respondent to submit share certificates on or before 13 October, 2021.

The Court, considering the conduct of the Respondent, incurred costs for today's hearing to be borne by the Respondent and listed the matter on 13 October, 2021.