The Delhi High
Court on February 2 dismissed a plea to look into alleged siphoning of funds by
the promoters of Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited (IBHFL), its subsidiaries,
and their promoters.
The Public
Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in 2019 by the NGO Citizens Whistle Blower
Forum, which is linked to lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
The court said,
"Finding no merit in the present petition, it is accordingly dismissed.
Pending applications are disposed of as infructuous.”
The court stated
that it is a settled position of law that the jurisdiction of investigation
lies within the realm of the investigating agency and a court has no authority
to interfere in the investigation unless there is a grave miscarriage of
justice or misuse of the process of law.
"The
investigation has to be transferred to the CBI, SIT, or any other agency only
in exceptional cases and not as a matter of routine. There is no dispute to the
position that necessary investigation in the present case has already been
carried out by the National Housing Bank (NHB) and also the Ministry of
Corporate Affairs is in the process of further investigation," the bench
of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna said.
The PIL sought
direction for an in-depth, thorough, and time-bound investigation by a Special
Investigation Team (SIT) into various serious illegalities, violations, and
siphoning of funds committed by the promoters of IBHFL, its subsidiaries, and
their promoters.
It further sought
'directions to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Registrar of Companies (ROC),
Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), National Housing Bank (NHB), Reserve
Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to take
action against IBHFL and its promoters/owners, who through its promoters,
subsidiary companies, and various groups of companies, has been allegedly
advancing dubious loans to companies owned by large corporate groups which in
turn have been routing the money back to the accounts of companies owned by the
promoters of Indiabulls, so as to increase their personal wealth'.
The Board of
Directors of IBHFL noted the Delhi High Court’s order of dismissal of the PIL
and 'shared the anguish felt by the innocent shareholders of the Company who
were made to suffer huge losses due to the unsubstantiated, false, and malafide
PIL that was filed with ulterior motives.'
The court said
that due to articles published in a magazine and newspaper, the tweets made by
a member of the petitioner-firm or a Member of Parliament, the shareholders of
the accused companies were jolted and they were made to suffer huge losses.
"This Court
is of the opinion that the allegations levelled by the petitioner are not
substantiated as these are not supported by any evidence," the court said.
The court stated
that the balance sheets or other material placed on record are already
available on the website of these companies and are thus already in the public
domain.
"Not only a
large portion of alleged loans were repaid by the respondent companies but also
the loans were advanced against mortgages and securities furnished by the
borrowers. Moreover, due to alleged complaints, the government functionaries
have already set in motion and necessary inspections have been carried out by
NHB. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is also in the process of further
investigation," the court said.