Court issues notice to Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia

Chandigarh: A court here today issued notice to co-owners of Indian Premier League team Kings XI

Punjab, including Bollywood actress Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia, on a suit accusing the Mohali franchise of not filing balance sheets and annual returns. The notice, returnable by July 24, was also issued to other owners of the franchise Karan Paul and Mohit Barman in connection with not maintaining the balance sheet of KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited, which owns Kings Punjab XI IPL team. The notice was issued by Chief Judicial Magistrate Jasbir Singh Sidhu after the Registrar of Companies (ROC) for Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh had filed a suit against them under Sections 159 and 220 of the Companies Act 1956 as they had not filed their balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and annual returns. In its petition, the ROC alleged that the KPH Dream Cricket Private Limited which was incorporated in March 2008, should have filed the annual return within 60 days from the day of its Annual General Meeting held on September 9, 2009 (Section 159 of Companies Act 1956) but the company had not complied with this requirement. "Similarly, the copies of balance-sheet and the profit and loss account should have been filed within 30 days of the AGM under Section 220 of Companies Act 1956, but the accused company didn`t do so too," Gaurav Hooda, counsel for the petitioner, said. The Mohali franchise has been in the thick of controversy recently, with Central Excise Department here slapping notice on it seeking payment of service tax of Rs 5.38 crore. PTI