Prima facie, there appears to be no violation of the Companies Law in Kumar Mangalam Birla transferring his entire 25 per cent stake to Suhel Seth in the uplinking entity of Star recently, senior Department of Company Affairs officials said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Also, there is no concept of shell companies in the Act and therefore there is no violation of it if Star has created such companies for different purposes like uplinking, infrastructure and content, they added.
Star, which is in the thick of a controversy on several issues involving the uplinking entity Media Content and Communication Services Ltd, has sought permission for uplinking its news and current affairs channel from India.
To clarify the uplinking policy and take a view on Star's application, the government has constituted an inter ministerial group, comprising secretaries of DCA and ministries of law and information and broadcasting.
The officials said nothing has been referred to DCA so far in the Star uplinking issue and declined to comment further on it.
Among other things, the government is examining Star's application on whether it has complied with the 26 per cent foreign equity cap and follows the uplinking guidelines in letter and spirit.
