NCLAT refuses to restrain Salman Khan from taking possession of his Mumbai property

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Friday refused to restrain Bollywood actor Salman Khan from taking back possession of his Mumbai property which was leased out to Future retail to operate a food and beverage store, Foodhall. .A bench of NLCAT chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan and Barun Mitra, Member (Technical) rejected the plea filed by Koinonia Coffee Private Limited which operated a store in the Foodhall store in Mumbai’s Linking Road area.“We see nonreason to issue any such injunction in this appeal,” the court said..Salman Khan had entered into a Leave and License agreement with Kishore Biyani owned Future Retail subsidiary TNSI Retail Private Limited. TNSI operated the Foodhall store in the property.Koinonia later approached the NCLAT arguing that Foodhall is the wholly owned subsidiary of Future Retail which has now gone into insolvency.It was stated that Koinonia is in the business of specialty coffee and has been involved in Foodhall business since 2018 as exclusive roasting and coffee serving partner.The tribunal was told that as Future went into insolvency, Koinonia asked the Resolution Professional (RP) to take possession of the Foodhall business and pay the dues. However, the RP did not respond.The appellant (Koinonia) then went to the Adjudicating Authority which reserved its orders on February 22..Koinonia further stated that as the orders were reserved by the authority, TNSI and the ex-management started colluding with licensors such as Salman Khan to shut the ‘Foodhall’ stores.“…the Appellant reasonably apprehends that the ex-management of the Corporate Debtor/TNSI will open the supermarket stores under a different brand-name.”The appellant filed an application before the Adjudicating Authority praying for pronouncement of order or in the meantime restrain Khan from taking possession of the property. The same came to be rejected by way of the present order on March 29, 2023..Koinonia’s plea was filed through advocates Aakashi Lodha and Ravi Raghunath.Chandrima Mitra (Partner), Parag Khandhar (Partner) and Varun Kalra (Associate) from DSK Legal appeared for Salman Khan.