Supreme Court To Hear On Friday Plea Seeking Recall Of Order Referring Jindal Poly Films Dispute To Arbitration

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear on Friday a plea filed by a group of 29 minority shareholders seeking recall of its order referring the Jindal Poly Films Ltd. class action dispute to arbitration.

The shareholders contend that India's first corporate class action under Section 245 of the Companies Act could not have been referred to arbitration without hearing the other shareholders represented in the proceedings.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana agreed to list the matter after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the minority shareholders, sought urgent mentioning.

Sibal submitted that the original class action had been instituted by shareholders holding 4.99% of the company's share capital. While the proceedings were pending, one of those shareholders transferred its shares to another entity (Monet Securities). According to Sibal, that entity colluded with the company to settle the dispute and seek a reference to arbitration.

"Despite the fact that other people had gone to the NCLT and that was pending, one of these sold the shares to another company. The company, in collusion, came with the petitioner and settled the matter. Despite the fact that the class action was pending with us, without informing the Court that there were other people who had proceeded... Therefore, we need the matter to be listed immediately," Sibal submitted.

The dispute arose from a Section 245 class action petition filed by minority shareholders holding 4.99% of Jindal Poly Films Ltd, alleging that the company undertook undervalued related party transactions involving Jindal Powertech and Jindal Thermal, causing substantial losses to the company and public shareholders.

On February 5, 2026, the NCLT held the petition to be maintainable and the NCLAT on February 26, 2026, upheld that view, holding that Section 245 covers both completed and concluded transactions.

On June 8, 2026, the parties jointly requested the Supreme Court to refer the dispute to arbitration and placed draft minutes of a consent order before the Court.

Accepting the request, the Supreme Court set aside the orders of the NCLT and NCLAT, appointed Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava (Retd. Chief Justice) as the sole arbitrator, fixed Delhi as the seat of arbitration, and kept all contentions open for determination before the arbitrator.