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TMI Blog2013 (2) TMI 283X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ly which may bring in the requirement of natural justice as also the duty to give reasons. Even a non-statutory private body which is not a State under article 12 of the Constitution, but which exercises public functions is bound to follow the principles of "fairness" and "good faith" and to act reasonably and its orders are amenable to judicial review. Section 4(1)(d) of the recently enacted statute, the Right to Information Act, 2005, also requires every public authority of India to "provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons". Reading of the impugned order, makes it is clear that no reason has been given by the authority for staying the proceedings of the appellant-company - The order, th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 408 of the Companies Act. 4. It is seen from the records that in the pending Company Petition bearing No. 35 of 2005, respondent No. 22, namely, M/s. Rameshwar Jute Mills Co. Ltd. (respondent No. 1 in the present proceedings) filed an application being C. A. No. 533 of 2008 and in the said interlocutory application the impugned order dated October 15, 2008, annexure A, has been passed, which reads as under : "Application mentioned. Counsel appearing for the respondent seeks time to file a reply. To be done by October 25, 2008 and rejoinder by November 2, 2008. The application will be heard on November 5, 2008, at 2.30 p.m. In the meanwhile there will no board meeting in any of the respondent-companies except that for the purpose of a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ly Shri S. P. Singh, the learned senior advocate, in support of I. A. No. 13001 of 2008 argued that as the appellants have obtained the interim order of stay during vacation suppressing the fact about passing of the earlier order in M. A. (Comp) No. 2 of 2008, on October 24, 2008, the application for vacating stay be allowed and the stay order vacated. Placing reliance on a judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Tamilnad Merchantile Bank Shareholders Welfare Association (No. 2) v. S.C. Sekar [2009] 2 SCC 784, the learned senior advocate sought for allowing the prayer made in I.A. No. 13001 of 2008. 7. Refuting the aforesaid, Shri Pratap Chatterjee, the learned senior advocate for the appellant M/s. Birla Ericsson Optical Ltd., took ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s stage the question of maintainability of the company petition and various other aspects, with regard to the merit of the company petition, need not be gone into as they are to be considered by the Company Law Board in the pending proceedings. At this stage the only question warranting consideration by this court in this appeal under section 10F, is as to whether the interim order granted on October 15, 2008, by the Company Law Board is in accordance with law or not. 10. We have perused the order, which is already reproduced hereinabove and it can be seen that the order has been passed without disclosing any reasons and it does not show application of mind. It is now well-settled that the conferment of quasi-judicial power implies that t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... they have won or lost . . . The second is that a requirement to give reasons, concentrates the mind ; if it is fulfilled, the resulting decision is much more likely to be soundly based . . ." 12. From the bare reading of the impugned order, it is clear that no reason has been given by the authority for staying the proceedings of the appellant-company. The order, therefore, suffers from inherent defect of not following the rules of natural justice. For these reasons, we set aside the impugned order and remand the matter to the Company Law Board with a direction to decide the interlocutory application C. A. No. 533 of 2008, filed by respondent No. 1 afresh, in accordance with law after following the principles of natural justice. 13. As t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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