Vijay Construction (Proprietary) Limited files for winding up of company after losing EEEL appeal in October |02 November 2022
Following the dismissal of its appeal by the Seychelles Court of Appeal against a judgment of the Supreme Court ordering the company to pay a sum in excess of Euro 20 million, Vijay Construction (Proprietary) Limited has filed for winding up of the company in order to protect its creditors.
The decision was taken at an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the company held on October 25, 2022 at the Providence Industrial Estate, Mahé.
This comes after the company lost its appeal last month to Eastern European Engineering Limited (EEEL).
A document in the public domain, showing extracts from minutes of the meeting, stipulates that the shareholders unanimously resolved that “the company was unable to pay all its current debts” and that “in the circumstances, the company would enter into a creditors’ voluntary winding up under section 146(1)(a)(i) of the Insolvency Act.”
It further adds that “if necessary, to petition the court in terms of section 96(a) of the Insolvency Act that it be wound up by the court and that the appointment of the provisional liquidator be confirmed”.
According to the document, present at the meeting were all five shareholders namely, the majority shareholder, V.J Patel with 80 shares and the remaining four, Foram Varsani, Nilesh Kerai, Kaushal Patel and Gaurang Patel with five shares each.
The petition for the winding up of the company will be heard as soon as the court sets a date.
It should be noted that a special Justices of Appeal, namely, Justice Winston Anderson, Justice Carl Singh and Justice William Young were sworn in especially for the case on October 10, 2022.
They gave their unanimous judgment on October 21, 2022 dismissing the appeal, thereby upholding the decision of the Supreme Court to have the two orders of the High Court of England registered and enforced in Seychelles.
As per the facts of the case, EEEL and Vijay entered into six contracts in relation to the construction of the Savoy Resort & Spa in 2011, and had under the contracts agreed to submit disputes to arbitration under the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris.
Following disputes over the quality of the work and timeframe of the construction, EEEL filed a Request for Arbitration in September 2012 through the ICC, and was largely successful. In his award of November 14, 2014, the arbitrator held that EEEL had validly terminated the six contracts and ordered Vijay to pay €15,963,858.90 damages along with costs.
Having failed to enforce the award owing to the fact that Seychelles was not a state party to the New York Convention, EEEL decided to register the arbitration award as a judgment in the High Court of England, who gave an order to the effect that the arbitration award can be enforced in the UK.
Vijay appealed against this, and their appeal was dismissed, which brought about a second order. This meant that the two orders could possibly be registered and enforced in Seychelles through a 1922 statute called ‘Reciprocal Enforcement of British Judgments Act’ (REBJA).
Patsy Canaya