Ansal Crown Heights Flat Buyers Association (Regd.) v. M/s Ansal Crown Infrabuild Pvt. Ltd. & Ors.
Background
Flat buyers who won a consumer commission decree against a builder company tried, after the builder entered insolvency, to execute the same decree against the company's individual directors, who were never parties to the original complaint.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held an execution proceeding cannot go beyond the decree, since the directors were never impleaded or found personally liable, and piercing the corporate veil requires specific pleadings and proof of fraud, the buyers could not collect from the directors this way, though other legal routes remained open.
Lesson Learnt
To hold a company's directors personally liable, you must formally implead them and prove fraud. You cannot skip that process and try to collect from them only at the execution stage.