Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Investor And Agent Welfare Society Of ... vs V. Janarthanan on 23 July, 2024
Author: Vikram Nath
Bench: Vikram Nath
ITEM NO.6 COURT NO.7 SECTION XII
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s). 1545/2021
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 18-11-2019
in WP No. 28418/2019 passed by the High Court Of Judicature At
Madras)
INVESTOR AND AGENT WELFARE SOCIETY OF DISC ASSETS LEAD INDIA LTD.
Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
V. JANARTHANAN & ORS. Respondent(s)
( IA No. 62181/2024 - APPLICATION FOR VACATION OF INTERIM ORDER)
Date : 23-07-2024 This matter was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIKRAM NATH
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRASANNA BHALACHANDRA VARALE
For Petitioner(s) Mr. K. Ramakant Reddy, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Komal Agarwal, Adv., Adv.
Mr. Dhananjay Kumar, Adv.
Mr. K. Krishna Kumar, AOR
For Respondent(s) Mr. Ardhendumouli Kumar Prasad, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Shashank Shekhar, AOR
Mr. Meghraj Singh, Adv.
Mr. Ratnesh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Madhavan Srivatsan, Adv.
Mr. Asa Hari Venkat, Adv.
Mr. Arjav Jain, Adv.
Mr. Chander Shekhar Ashri, AOR
Ms. Ekta Choudhary, AOR
Mr. Divyank Dutt Dwivedi, Adv.
Ms. Aditi Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Deepanshu Yadav, Adv.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally signed by
SONIA BHASIN
Date: 2024.07.24
Mr./Dr. S Muralidhar, Sr. Adv.
14:08:40 IST
Reason:
Mr. Mayank Kshirsagar, AOR
1
Mr. Dinesh Balachandran, Adv.
Dr. Nanda Kishore, AOR
Dr. D. Kumanan, AOR
Ms. Deepa S., Adv.
Mr. Sheikh F. Kalia, Adv.
Mr. Veshal Tyagi, Adv.
Mr. Chinmay Anand, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
The petitioner-Investor’s and Agent’s Welfare Society of Disc Assets Lead India Limited had approached the High Court by way of Writ Petition No. 28418 of 2019 seeking a Writ of Mandamus directing the 8th respondent Committee (the Committee constituted under the orders of the High Court headed by earlier retired Hon’ble Judge and thereafter retired Hon’ble the Chief Justice) to be dissolved along with consequential directions to the said Committee to hand over all the original property(s) documents belonging to the 1st respondent-Company to TNPID Court, Madurai to enable the said court to proceed with attachment, sale and realisation of funds from the properties belonging to the 1 st respondent-Company in accordance with the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Protection of Interests of Depositors(in Financial Establishments) Act, 1997 (‘TNPID Act’). The said petition was disposed of by the impugned order dated 18th November, 2019 requesting the respondent-Committee to consider the 2 reply of the petitioner dated 15th November, 2019 within a period of four weeks and thereafter leaving it open for the petitioner to work out their remedy in the manner known to law by filing a fresh writ petition, if so advised.
Before us learned counsel for the petitioner has sought to challenge the impugned order and has vehemently argued that the TNPID Act provides a complete mechanism for dealing with such investors company, upon criminal case being initiated, and also to deal with attachment, sale and realisation of funds from the assets of the defaulter for distribution to the investors. We have been taken through various provisions of TNPID Act. The submission is that as there is a Special Court constituted under the TNPID Act to deal with not only with the criminal offences but also with attachment, sale and realisation from the assets of the investor company in default, there was no justification for the constitution of the Committee by the High Court.
On the other hand, Dr. Muralidhar, learned senior counsel appearing for the said Committee submitted that the Committee was constituted way back in 2017. Initially, a retired Hon’ble Judge of the High Court was appointed to chair the Committee and 3 thereafter a retired Hon’ble Chief Justice has been nominated by the High Court and the High Court, while making such nominations, had given detailed directions as to how the Committee would function and also to provide all necessary assistance to the Committee and also leaving it open for the Committee to take assistance of professionals to deal with the situation.
He further submits that the orders passed by the High Court constituting the Committee and in particular, the order dated 11th October, 2017 was assailed before this Court unsuccessfully.
Further, it has been pointed out referring to the counter affidavit that two to three other petitions were also filed before this Court which were also either dismissed or got dismissed as withdrawn assailing subsequent orders passed by the High Court. It is also submitted that the provisions of the TNPID Act regarding constitution of the Special Court and the Special Court having jurisdiction to try not only the offences but also the attachment, auction sale and realisation from the assets of the defaulter Company were considered by the High Court and thus the present petition deserves to be dismissed, as the issue has already been settled by this Court.
4 We have gone through the orders passed by the High Court and by this Court and we are convinced that the present petition requires dismissal. We accordingly dismiss this petition. All pending interlocutory applications filed by the Committee stand disposed of in view of the dismissal of the petition. Parties are at liberty to approch the High Court for any further orders. The Contempt Petition that has been filed by the defaulter-Company also stands dismissed as withdrawn on the statement of the learned senior counsel.
Interim order(s), if any, stands vacated. We request the High Court to decide all the pending matters, including applications filed before the High Court and particularly filed by the defaulter-Company, expeditiously.
Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of accordingly.
(SONIA BHASIN) (RANJANA SHAILEY)
COURT MASTER (SH) COURT MASTER (NSH)
5