VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, May 25: The Registrar of Companies-cum-Official Liquidator, Ministry of Corporate Affairs has informed the Jharkhand High Court that it could provide details of only four companies that are registered in Jharkhand. The rest of the companies are registered outside the jurisdiction of Jharkhand hence it can’t report about others.
The Registrar of Companies in the affidavit submitted before the High Court has said these four companies fall within the territorial jurisdiction of the Registrar of Companies of Jharkhand. It said that the other 45 companies listed in the PIL fall within the jurisdiction of the Registrar of Companies in Patna, Delhi, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and West Bengal hence the RoC can’t say anything about these companies.
Senior lawyer Rajiv Kumar refused to comment stating that it was a sub judice matter. “I can only say that the RoC has done a hyper-technical interpretation of the order of the court. If the court sent notices to the RoC to its Ranchi office address it doesn’t mean that the court has directed to report only those companies which are listed in Jharkhand,” he said.
But it is not clear which are these four companies to which details the Registrar of Companies has submitted. Further, it is not clear whether the said four companies have genuine operations or are shell companies.
The Registrar of Companies has submitted its reply in response to a PIL 4290 /2021 by Shiv Shankar Sharma where he alleged Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his associates for parking unaccounted money in different shell companies. While hearing this case on April 22 the bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad impleaded the Registrar of Companies as a respondent of this case.
“Let the Registrar of Companies-cum-Official Liquidator, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Mangal Tower, 4th floor, Old Hazaribagh Road, Near Kanta Toli Chowk, Ranchi-834001, Jharkhand be impleaded as party-respondent no. 14. Mr. Prashant Pallav, A.S.G.I. waives notice on behalf of the newly impleaded party-respondent no.14. Let him seek instructions from the Registrar of Companies regarding the Companies against which allegations have been made in this writ petition. Let the details of those Companies be furnished by the counsel appearing for the Registrar of the Companies to this Court,” the order ordered.
Notably, the Enforcement Directorate which is also a party of this PIL has informed the court about four companies that are suspected to be shell companies managed by Ravi Kejriwal who was once an office-bearer of the JMM and close to Hemant Soren.
These include Destination Nirman Private Limited (Est. 24 June 2008), Gayatri Commotrade Pvt Ltd (Est. January 11, 2010), Shivmangal Vinimay Pvt Ltd (Est. 11 July 2007), and Vasundhara Vincom Pvt Ltd which was set-up on September 3, 2008. According to the information, Ravi Kejriwal and Shiv Shankar Agrawal are the directors of these companies.