The recent controversies involving Zee Entertainment and Dish TV both involve investors holding significant stakes attempting to convene general meetings of shareholders. Through such meeting, the investors seek to replace certain directors on the existing boards. In both cases, the existing boards of directors have declined to convene such meetings. In this context, we first consider a purely legal question related to the circumstances under which can a company’s board decline a request from the company’s shareholders to convene a shareholders meeting. We then consider whether the grounds on which the boards of Zee Entertainment and Dish TV have rejected the investors’ requests are valid.
