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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Bombay High Court order directing sale of bankrupt Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) to ensure repayment of dues of crisis-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobe and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant took note of the appeal of the Reserve Bank of India against the Bombay High Court order.
The top court also issued notice on RBI’s plea to parties, including Sarosh Damania, who had approached the Bombay High Court for ensuring payment of dues to PMC Bank account holders.
Earlier, the Bombay High Court had set up a three-member committee for valuating and sale of encumbered assets of HDIL to expeditiously recover dues payable by the firm to PMC Bank.
The high court had passed the order while hearing a PIL seeking direction for expeditious disposal of HDIL assets and properties attached by the Economic Offence Wing and the Enforcement Directorate and repaying PMC Bank depositors at the earliest.
The fraud at PMC Bank came to light in September last year after the Reserve Bank of India discovered that it had allegedly created fictitious accounts to hide over Rs 4,355 crore of loans extended to HDIL.
According to RBI, the PMC Bank masked 44 problematic loan accounts, including those of HDIL, by tampering with its core banking system, and the accounts were accessible only to limited staff members.
The Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing and the ED registered offences against senior bank officials and HDIL promoters.
