An Official Citizen Charter?

The division bench of the Calcutta High Court yesterday directed the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) to file an application explaining the delay in filing the appeal against the Company Law Board (CLB) order regarding the appointment of government directors on the board of Dunlop India Ltd.

Earlier, the CLB had rejected the DCA's prayer to appoint nine additional directors on the board of Dunlop India to safeguard the interest of the company, the shareholders and the public.

In their order dated February 12, 1999, the CLB had stated: "we are of the view that, in line with judicial propriety, we should refrain from passing any orders in exercise of our powers under

Section 408 even assuming that the ingredients of section 408 have been fully satisfied in the present case.

Accordingly, we dispose off this reference without any order".

The order was passed on February 12 and the appeal should have been filed within sixty days, that is by April 14. But since the DCA had filed the appeal on early May, the court directed the DCA to file an application explaining the reason for the delay.

In its petition before the division bench, the Department of Company Affairs has stated that the CLB has rejected DCA's petition without considering the fact that the present management of Dunlop India has "mismanaged the company". 0.4 per cent