Court orders winding up of Deccan Cargo

The Karnataka High Court has issued orders for winding up Capt. G.R. Gopinath’s Deccan Cargo and Express Logistics Pvt Ltd (DCEL), which operates under the ‘Deccan 360’ brand.

The High Court’s order indicates that DCEL, even after being given several opportunities, could not pay dues to the tune of Rs 39 lakh to Dubai-based United Aviation Services (UAS) and Rs 1.36 crore to Patel Integrated Logistics Pvt Ltd.

The court directed the winding up of the company in its June 11, 2013 order based on two petitions — one filed by UAS, which provided various facilities like permits, ground handling and fuelling in West Asia, Europe and Russia for DCEL, and another one filed by Patel Integrated, which had provided various logistic services to DCEL.

Now, the Court has ordered the Official Liquidator to commence the liquidation process. Last year itself, the court had prohibited DCEL from selling any of its assets following these two petitions.

DCEL had opposed Patel Integrated’s plea. It alleged that the petition for winding up was filed to avoid payment of court fee to launch a recovery suit under the civil laws, and to “pressurise the company (DCEL) to act in accordance with the dictates of Patel Integrated”. However, DCEL did not file any objection against the plea of UAS to wind up the company.

Both the petitioners knocked the doors of the court in 2011 after failing in their attempts to recover DCEL’s dues since 2009. It was pointed out in the petitions that DCEL had asked many of its 600-odd employees to either quit or go on long leave due to a serious financial crisis, and that it was selling its assets to clear its debts. As DCEL too had admitted its financial difficulties in making payments, the petitioner-companies had pleaded for the winding up of DCEL.

The court also noticed that though two separate public notices were issued in 2012 about the pleas for winding up, no objection was received against them.

Global Airport and Ground Services Pvt Ltd, JP Aviation Services Pvt Ltd, Lufthansa Tehnik Services India Ltd, Aegis Ltd, Dolphin Transport Corporation and Mindtree Ltd had also approached the court subsequently for winding up DCEL.

However, the court, in its various orders issued between June 12 and 28, has referred them to the Official Liquidator for claiming the amount due through the liquidation process.

DCEL was originally incorporated as Deccan Cargo Ltd in 2001 and later changed its name to DCEL in 2007-08. It launched operations in November 2009, two years after Capt Gopinath sold off his airline business, Deccan Aviation, to Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines.

COMMENT NOW