No use going after nominee director who signed no document: Court

While it may be true that a nominee director cannot wash his hands of disagreeable aspects of a company he or she is director of, it would be a terrible waste of time to go after a nominee director who had put in her papers from the organisation concerned and who had not signed a single document when she was nominee director in the company.

Ms Radhika S. Minocha, an employee of ICICI Bank, was nominated as its representative on the board of Daewoo Motors Ltd in liquidation. She had resigned in 1999 from ICICI but the winding-up order against Daewoo was passed four years later. On her resignation, Form 32 was filed with the Registrar of Companies. That was, effectively, a notice to the public on the severing of her connections with the company. Being a nominee director, in any case, she had lost her directorship as well on resignation from the nominator.

The Delhi High Court, in Daewoo Motors India Ltd vs Wg Cdr (Retd.) H.D. Talwani , not only absolved Ms Minocha of any responsibility in filing a statement of affairs, as sought by the official liquidator, but also castigated the latter for picking and choosing — another ex-nominee of the same bank was not called upon to assist him in filing the statement of affairs in the Daewoo case.

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