Delhi High Court - Orders
Karmyogi Properties Pvt. Ltd vs Oyo Hotels And Homes Pvt. Ltd. & Ors on 16 October, 2020
Author: V. Kameswar Rao
Bench: V. Kameswar Rao
$~3
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ O.M.P. (I) (COMM) 325/2020 & I.As. 8963/2020, 8964/2020,
8965/2020
KARMYOGI PROPERTIES PVT. LTD ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr.Debesh Panda, Mr.V. D. Verma,
Ms.Anandita Sharma, Mr.Pramod
Kumar Singhal and Ms.Achal
Singhal, Advs.
versus
OYO HOTELS AND HOMES PVT. LTD. & ORS. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr.Sanjay Ghose, Mr.Jeevan Ballav
Panda, Ms.Shalini Sati Prasad,
Mr.Satish Padhi, Ms.Meher Tandon
and Mr.Gaurav Sharma, Advs. with
Mr.V Sai Prasad and Ms.Priyanka
Raj, ARs of the R-1
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE V. KAMESWAR RAO
ORDER
% 16.10.2020 This matter is being heard through video-conferencing. I.A. 8964/2020 (for exemption) Exemption allowed subject to all just exceptions. The application is disposed of.
I.A. 8965/2020 (for exemption) Exemption allowed subject to all just exceptions. The application is disposed of.
O.M.P. (I) (COMM) 325/2020 & I.A. 8963/2020
1. This petition has been filed by the petitioner with the following prayers:
"(a) Pass appropriate directions for protection and preservation of full information and evidence in the possession of the Respondents herein immediately as to all revenues generated from and all expenditures incurred at the hotel property of the Petitioner located at 1/3,4 Vaishali, Ghaziabad from July 19, 2016 till date, whether in hard copy, soft copy, or on remote server/cloud computing/SAP, inter alia; and
(b) Pass appropriate directions so that an inventory is carried out of the complete financial records in the possession of the Respondents herein immediately as to all revenues generated from and all expenditures incurred at the hotel property of the Petitioner located at 1/3,4 Vaishali, Ghaziabad from July 19, 2016 till date, and copies are shared with the Petitioner; and
(c) Pass appropriate directions so that an audit be conducted in respect of the complete financial records in the possession of the Respondents herein immediately as to all revenues generated from and all expenditures incurred at the hotel property of the Petitioner located at 1/3,4 Vaishali, Ghaziabad from July 19, 2016 till date; and
(d) To facilitate this process and if considered necessary otherwise, also consider appointing a pool of local commissioners duly empowering each one of them to:
(i) Visit any of the locations/premises where the Respondents or any of their agents/representatives/ employees are located (as identified by the Petitioner through its representatives), without prior notice to the Respondents, or any other locations/premises as revealed during the local commission proceedings where full information or evidence is available, or is believed / likely to be available; and
(ii) Serve a copy of this Hon'ble Court's order, if any, as passed on the person-in-charge of the establishment located at the premises identified above; and
(iii) Take inventory of all documents relating to any revenues and expenditures whatsoever, including without limitation, bill books, day books, ledgers of accounts, KOTs, invoices, files, returns, GST filings, Sales tax and Income tax files, delivery registers, files containing details of capital and operating expenditures at the hotel of the Petitioner, internal inward and outward gate pass registers, production charts, employee remuneration dockets, vouchers, labour contract files, suppliers contract files, bank files and bank pass books with transaction details, stocks of materials, raw materials, and all other relevant details communications and records of the business and make copies thereof, and further submit a report in respect thereof to this Hon'ble Court; and
(iv) Ascertain whether any documents are available in original hardcopy, and if so, take all such original documents into custody, and provide photostat copies thereof to the parties at the expense of the Petitioner, and if not, make efforts to ascertain where the original documents are kept/retained so that they may be seized and taken into custody forthwith; and
(v) In respect of any documents not available in original hardcopy, the print out or photostat copy thereof be collected with the signature of the person-in-charge of the establishment located at the premises identified above and copies thereof be provided to the parties on the spot, and if the documents are in softcopy or available on a remote server/cloud computing/SAP, get a copy thereof made on portable drives purchased at the expense of the Petitioner in the presence of the parties and hand over copies to the parties on the spot and obtain receipts from the person-incharge of the establishment located at the premises identified above;
and
(vi) To take photos and/or videograph the entire process, if so desired by the parties; and
(vii) To approach the local police station and/or if necessary senior police officers including Director General of Police, and /or Superintendent of Police of the district, if necessary, to render protection, ensure safety of the local commissioner concerned and provide all assistance required for execution of the commission in terms of the directions passed by this Hon'ble Court; and
(viii) To authorise the Police Officers to open the locks of any premises for the purposes of carrying out the directions passed by this Hon'ble Court;
(ix) Make appropriate arrangements for safekeeping of all such records and material, until the Arbitral Tribunal is constituted in accordance with law and is able to pass appropriate orders in respect thereof; and
(e) Grant such other interim measure of protection as may appear to the court to be just and convenient, in the circumstances presented through the instant petition;
(f) Pending the hearing and final disposal of the present Petition, grant interim and ad-interim ex parte reliefs in terms of prayer clauses (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) above;
(g) Grant costs of the instant petition;
(h) Grant such further and other reliefs as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit in the nature and circumstances of the case, to secure the ends of justice."
2. Mr.Sanjay Ghose, learned counsel appearing for respondent No.1, states that a copy of the petition has not been served on the respondents despite a communication, in that regard, having been sent to Mr.Debesh Panda, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner. Mr.Panda has his explanation to offer for not sending the copy of the petition to the respondents.
3. Mr.Panda has drawn my attention to an order passed by a coordinate bench of this Court in a petition, against the respondents herein, wherein the petition was disposed of by granting an interim relief in favour of the petitioner and appointing a learned Arbitrator. Mr.Ghose states that he has no objection if the parties are relegated to the Arbitration proceedings. Mr.Ghose, also states, without prejudice to the contentions of the petitioner, that many of the documents as sought for in the aforesaid prayer clause
(d)(iii) appears to be not relevant with regard to the dispute in question between the parties, still the respondents shall preserve the documents at
(d)(iii) above w.e.f. July 19, 2016 till date.
4. Noting the submissions made by the counsel for the parties, it is directed that the respondents shall preserve the aforesaid documents effective from July 19, 2016 till date. This interim order shall continue till the parties appear before Justice Arijit Pasayat, former Judge of the Supreme Court, who, as agreed by the counsel for the parties, is appointed as a Sole Arbitrator for adjudicating the disputes and differences between the parties. The fees of the learned Arbitrator shall be in terms of Fourth Schedule to the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996.
5. The parties shall appear before the learned Arbitrator on October 24, 2020, at a convenient time to be fixed by the Ld. Arbitrator, on the counsels calling him on his mobile. On the said date, the learned Arbitrator shall consider extending / modifying / vacating the order passed by this Court after hearing the learned counsel for the parties, on this petition, which shall be treated as an application under Section 17 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996.
6. Mr.Panda, learned counsel for the petitioner, shall send to Justice Arijit Pasayat a copy of this petition. The respondents shall also be at liberty to file a reply, if any, to the petition before the date of hearing.
7. At this stage, Mr.Ghose states that the petitioner be restrained from going to the media and giving the statement with regard to these proceedings. Mr.Panda, vehemently, opposes such a submission saying that it is an unnecessary insinuation against the petitioner. In any case, he states that the petitioner shall not give any statement to the Press with regard to these proceedings. Similarly, Mr.Ghose also states that no statement shall be made by the respondents to the Press with regard to these proceedings. Their statements are taken on record.
8. Let a copy of this order be sent to Justice Arijit Pasayat for information. It is made clear that this Court has not expressed itself on the merits of the controversy in this petition. The petition along with the application is disposed of.
V. KAMESWAR RAO, J OCTOBER 16, 2020/bh