Thachat Viswanath Narendran And vs State Of Odisha And Another
2023 Latest Caselaw 2626 Ori

                     IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK

                                   CRLMC No. 533 of 2019

            Thachat Viswanath Narendran and       ....         Petitioners
            another
                                       Mr. S.P. Mishra, Senior Advocate
                                    -versus-

            State of Odisha and another                .... Opposite Parties
                                                         Mr. Ishwar Mohanty
                                        Additional Standing Counsel for State

                        CORAM:
                        THE CHIEF JUSTICE

                                        ORDER

Order No. 31.03.2023

21. 1. The present petition seeks the quashing of complaint case i.e. 2(C) CC No.29 of 2016 pending in the Court of J.M.F.C., Jajpur Road, Jajpur which has been lodged only against the Directors of the Company and not the company itself. The present two Petitioners are the Director and Vice President (Mines) respectively of M/s. Tata Steel Limited which has not been made a party to the complaint.

2. In view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Aneeta Hada v. Godfather Travels and Tours Pvt. Ltd. (2012) 52 OCR (SC) 254 which has been followed by this Court in its judgment dated 26th August, 2019 in CRLMC No.1923 of 2018 (Odisha Mining Corporation Ltd. v. State of Odisha) holding that in the absence of making the Company itself a party is not open to the complainant to proceed only against the Directors, the aforementioned complaint case i.e. 2(C) CC No.29 of 2016 pending in the Court of J.M.F.C., Jajpur Road, Jajpur and all proceedings consequent thereto are hereby quashed. This order will not

preclude the Complainant from approaching the Company for recovery of the amount owed to it.

3. The CRLMC is disposed of in the above terms.

4. The Superintendent of the concerned branch is directed to communicate this order to the concerned Subordinate Court forthwith.

(Dr. S. Muralidhar) Chief Justice

S. Behera