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NEW DELHI: McDonald’s has said that Connaught Plaza Restaurants Ltd ( CPRL ) will not be authorised to use its brand name and trademark starting September 6, implying that 169 stores of the burger-and fries brand face closure across the entire north and east region from Wednesday.“The termination notice period ends on September 5. Therefore, CPRL is no longer authorised to use the McDonald's system and its intellectual property. It means they need to stop using the McDonald's names, trademarks, designs, branding, operational and marketing practice and policies, and food recipes and specifications. We are proceeding with exercising our legal and contractual rights,” a McDonald’s India spokesperson said in an emailed response to ET ’s query.Meanwhile, the National Company Law Tribunal on Tuesday dismissed a plea by CPRL managing director Vikram Bakshi challenging the termination of the franchise agreement by McDonald’s.Bakshi did not comment specifically on whether the stores would remain shut from Wednesday. “As of now, all I am saying is that we will be approaching the national company law appellate tribunal on Wednesday,” he told ET.He said the closure of stores would have adverse impact on thousands of lives and businesses. “This will cause widespread damage to the lives of over 10,000 Indians (directly and indirectly), the company, the suppliers and all business associates,” he said.CPRL, the 50:50 joint venture between McDonald’s and Bakshi, operates McDonald’s stores in north and east India. Relations between the two partners have been estranged for the last several years. On August 21, the US burger and fries chain terminated its agreement with CRPL, and asked the latter to stop using all branding and intellectual property of McDonald’s within 15 days.Meanwhile, large store owners of McDonald’s outlets, including real estate major DLF , said they have served notices to CPRL to vacate the stores, and are looking for new tenants. “If the brand name can no longer be used in those stores, we will obviously be looking for new tenants. We can’t have a situation where stores in plum locations lie vacant,” said a senior official at DLF.A top official at a leading supplier, requesting not to be named, said there was no communication yet from CPRL on the status of their contract. “We are in the dark and have to wait and watch what happens next. The loss is entirely ours,” he said.The potential closure impacts the quick service restaurant industry’s largest brand, its over 7,000 employees, suppliers such as Vista Processed Foods and Schreiber Dynamix Dairies, besides multiple store owners. Of the 169 stores, only a handful were owned directly by Bakshi, while majority of the stores were under leases by different store owners. Of the 169 stores that are impacted, 43 are already closed for the last two months, on account of non-renewal of eating house licences by local authorities.Bakshi had challenged McDonald’s termination notice at the NCLT. He had also filed another plea against the US company, alleging that the latter continued to interfere in the operations of CPRL — the equal 50:50 joint venture between the two. The NCLT asked Bakshi to seek relief from the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) where the matter is already pending.The tribunal simultaneously issued a show cause notice to the global storestaurant chain over contempt petition filed by Bakshi.The joint venture between McDonald’s and Bakshi first faced headwinds in 2013, with McDonald’s accusing its partner of financial irregularities and removing him as managing director of CPRL. Bakshi was reinstated as MD of CPRL in July 2017 by the NCLT. McDonald’s had said last month that it was compelled to terminate the agreement because CPRL has “materially breached the terms of the respective franchise agreements relating to the affected restaurants, and has failed to remedy the breaches despite being provided with an opportunity to do so in accordance with the agreements”.