NCLAT Allows Valli Arunachalam To Register Legal Heirs After Mother’s Death

The Chennai Bank of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday granted the interim requests to adopt Valli Arunachalam and Vellachi Muruggapan as legal heirs of their late mother MV Valli Murugappan and to name the proxy holder of MV Murugappan to change Hindu undivided family.
The tribunal approved both requests and ordered Valli Arunachalam to make the changes within the two-week period, while the case was adjourned for further hearing on April 20, 2022.

The NCLAT heard the appeal of the Murugappa group holding company Ambadi Investments (AIL) and other family members against granting withdrawal of the first waiver application — which paved the way for the filing of a new waiver application — on a company petition filed by Valli Arunachalam at the NCLT, Chennai.

The hearing began with counsel for Valli Arunachalam informing the court that the tribunal had dealt with the appeal in detail on the first day of the list of appeals filed by AIL. Furthermore, she explained the two applications submitted by the applicants to register themselves in the place of MV Valli Murugappan (deceased) along with the application submitted by MV Murugappan Hindu Undivided Family to replace the proxy holder’s name. AIL’s counsel indicates that he has no objection to the granting of the name change.

He argued, however, that he has objections to the replacement request regarding the additional documents submitted by the applicants that were not included in the waiver file and company requests filed with the NCLT, and requested that he provide a response. may submit. The tribunal at this point indicated that there was no requirement to file a response in such requests and the tribunal heard nothing about the merits of the appeal. NCLT’s Chennai Bank had adjourned the next hearing to April 6, 2022 on the new waiver application by Valli Arunachalam and her relatives on Feb. 2, following the NCLAT appeal hearing on Mar. 23, 2022.

The NCLT initiated the hearing in the new denial application and had instructed AIL and other Murugappa family members to submit their responses to the tribunal’s notice.

Valli Arunachalam and her mother MV Valli Murugappan, collectively referred to as the MVM family, had made the holding company AIL AIL as respondent number 1 and Murugappa relatives respondents 2 to 10, while moving the NCLT in March last year to request waiver of the minimum shareholder standard for upholding the alleged suppression and maladministration case against AIL.

Subsequently, NCLAT, acting on AIL’s appeal, ordered NCLT’s Chennai bank to postpone the hearing in the case filed by Valli Arunachalam until the appeals court heard the appeal filed by AIL in the case.

Valli Arunachalam is the daughter of the late executive chairman of the Murugappa Group, MV Murugappan, and after his death in 2017, she, her sister and their mother own an 8.21% stake in AIL. She made headlines in 2020 when she openly spoke out against the Rs 41,000 crore Murugappa group for denying her a seat on AIL’s board of directors, despite holding a significant stake. She even claimed gender bias by not naming her.