New Delhi, Feb. 4 (PTI): Putting an end to the controversy over the jurisdiction of Company Law Board?s (CLB) principal bench in the tussle between BPL group patriarch T. P. G. Nambiar and his son-in-law Rajeev Chandrashekhar, the main bench has said since the companies were registered in the southern region, additional principal bench, Chennai, alone had the ?exclusive jurisdiction? to decide on the matter.

?The petition is dismissed for want of jurisdiction. However, the petitioners have the liberty to move the additional bench, if so advised,? CLB chairman S. Balasubramanian said, dismissing the petition filed by Nambiar and others.

The principal bench held that only the additional bench in Chennai had the powers to decide matters regarding companies with registered offices in the southern region.

?I hold that once the additional bench has been constituted with specific territorial jurisdiction with all the powers of the principal bench, petitions relating to companies having registered offices in the southern region have to be filed before and dealt with by the additional bench and the principal bench ceases to have any jurisdiction to entertain such petitions,? the CLB chairman said.