The Calcutta High Court today offered a final breather till Friday to ailing tyre manufacturing company Dunlop India to deposit Rs 10 crore before considering a prayer for stay on the winding up order passed by a trial court last week.
A division bench comprising Justices Girish Gupta and Tarun Kumar Das directed Dunlop counsel to take instruction from the management if it would be able to deposit Rs 10 crore and how it planned to bring back assets into the company.
Justice Gupta said there would be no further hearing on the stay petition unless the company deposited Rs 10 crore as this sum was nominal to show interest to stop the winding up when the company had syphoned off assets of over Rs 2,000 crore to its subsidiaries.
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The court said only after that it would consider a prayer for stay of the winding up petition.
Dunlop counsel did not contest the asset transfer from the company to its subsidiaries but said the value was estimated at around Rs 600 crore.
Justice Gupta tried to know from the advocate general about any plans to protect stakeholder interest.
Justice Sanjib Banerjee had on January 31 ordered winding up of Dunlop India Limited, which had set up its first factory at Sahaganj near here in 1936.
Justice Banerjee had directed the official liquidator to take immediate possession of the company's assets and books of records.
E V Mathai and Sons and A K Kundu and Company, followed by 15 other creditors, had moved a winding up petition before the high court seeking liquidation of the company in 2008 for non-payment of dues amounting to around Rs 1,000 crore.
Having led the tyre manufacturing industry for decades, the company went downhill since late 1990s. In 2005, the Ruia Group led by Pawan Kumar Ruia had taken control of the ailing company.
