This is to inform you that the National Company Law Tribunal has dismissed the place of Simpl co-founder Nityanand Sharma who was seeking the NCLT to refer the dispute before the NCLT to arbitration but the National Company Law Tribunal ruled its decision in favor of Chaitra Chidanand. Chaitra Chidanand and Nityanand Sharma are the two founders of fintech startup Simpl. Nityanand Sharma had filed a plea with NCLT to refer the case to arbitration but the National Company Law Tribunal ruled the decision in the favor of Chaitra Chidanand. This decision was announced by a bench of two justices, Justice Kishore Vemulapalli and Prabhat Kumar. The bench ruled that the NCLT cannot refer their disputes to arbitration as requested by the co-founder of Simpl.
Chaitra Chidanand left the fintech startup Simpl to co-found SALT in 2020. Chidanand filed a petition against Nityanand Sharma under sections 241-242 of the Companies Act. Chaitra Chidanand alleged oppression and mismanagement in the affairs of its parent company, Get Simple Technologies. Chidanand’s counsel Nausher Kohli opposed Nityanand Sharma’s plea and argued that the essence of Chidanand’s dispute were allegations of oppression and mismanagement, that can not be an arbitral tribunal and can only be adjudicated upon by NCLT. Continue reading this article and go through this article till the end.
The counsel of Chaitra Chidanand, Nausher Kohli further added that all the parties to the NCLT petition are not parties to the arbitration agreement and reference can not be made to arbitration. The NCLT said Chidanand’s grief was non-adherence to the understanding that the shareholding of Get Simpl Technologies Pvt. Ltd will be mirrored in a Delaware-based company. The bench heard the arguments of both parties. After hearing the arguments of both sides, the NCLT announced its decision in favor of Chidanand as her petition raised contractual disputes as opposed to disputes of oppression and mismanagement. Swipe down the page and read more details.
The National Company Law Tribunal reportedly dismissed the application for referring disputes to arbitration filed by Sharma who was represented by Amol Jhunjhunwala of Khaitan & Co. While the opposite party, Chidanand was represented by Sanaya Patel and Sushmita Gandhi of IndusLaw. Sharma’s advocate Amol Jhunjhunwala sought dismissal of the company petition filed by Chaitra Chidanand to claim it is dressed up, oppressive, vexatious, and mala fide, to evade the arbitration clause. Stay tuned to this website for more details and updates.