Journalism of Courage
Power of Attorney holder can also file cheque bounce cases: Supreme Court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that a criminal complaint in a cheque bounce case can be filed and pursued by a person who holds a power of attorney (PoA) on behalf of the complainant. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam gave the authoritative pronouncement on the issue,referred to it by a division bench in view of conflicting judgements of some high courts and the apex court. We are of the view that the power of attorney holder may be allowed to file,appear and depose for the purpose of issue of process for the offence punishable under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (which deals with cheque bounce cases), the bench,also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Ranjan Gogoi,said. Filing of complaint petition under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act through PoA holder is perfectly legal and competent, the order said. It said the PoA holder can depose and verify on oath before the court in order to prove the contents of the complaint. However,the PoA holder must have witnessed the transaction as an agent of the payee/holder in due course or possess due knowledge regarding the transactions, it added.
Mutual fund accounts fall by over 13 lakh in April-July: Sebi
MUMBAI: Mutual funds lost more than 13 lakh investors,measured in terms of individual accounts or folios,in the first four months of the current fiscal,mainly due to profit booking and various merger schemes. According to market regulator Sebis data on total investor accounts with 44 fund houses,the number of folios fell to around 4.15 crore at the end of July 2013,from 4.28 crore in the last fiscal (2012-13). Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts,although one investor can have multiple folios. Market participants attributed the sharp fall in number of folios to profit-booking and various merger schemes in the mutual fund industry,among other reasons. During the April-July period of 2013,the number of investor folios for equity schemes fell by over 13 lakh. The total number of folios in equity funds were 3.17 crore by the end of June as against 3.31 crore by March-end. The total number of folios in debt funds rose by about 2.20 lakh to 64 lakh at the end of July. Exchange traded funds gained over 2,960 folios to 7.42 lakh investor accounts. Balanced schemes,which invest in the equity and debt category,shed 88,665 folios to end at 25 lakh. As on July 31,the sector offered a total of 1,172 schemes,of which 345 were equity schemes and 739 were debt-linked schemes.
FIIs infuse R6,000 crore in Indian capital markets in two weeks
New Delhi: Overseas investors have pumped in nearly Rs 6,000 crore in the Indian capital markets in a fortnight ended September 13,mainly on the back of new RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan announcing various measures to boost the depreciating local currency and revive economic growth. Inflows in equities were about Rs 6,372 crore ($966 million) during September 2-13,while there was a pull-out of Rs 382 crore (USD 64 million) from the debt market,translating into net inflows of Rs 5,990 crore ($922 million),as per latest data available with market regulator Sebi. In August there was a net withdrawal of nearly Rs 16,000 crore (about $2.5 billion) from the domestic capital markets.
