The Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar of the Delhi High Court has issued notice to Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd, hence admitting the PIL by Citizens Whistleblowers Forum alleging various illegalities and malpractices on IndiaBulls’ dealings with public money. Notice was also issued to RBI, SEBI and Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on allegations made in the PIL, seeking response within 2 weeks. Court posted the matter for hearing on 15th December.
Shares of Indiabulls group marked a sharp fall soon after news of the High Court’s notice spread in the market.
The PIL filed through Advocate Kamini Jaiswal – Citizens Whistle Blowers Forum v Union of India – seeks a ‘time bound investigation by a SIT into various serious illegalities, violations and siphoning committed by the promoters of Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited (IBHFL), its subsidiaries and their promoters.’
The petition alleges, “details of borrowings inter alia show that over 12000 companies are registered at the same address as that of Indiabulls thereby suggesting a staggering number of dummy companies having been created by Indiabulls.”
The petition alleges violation of Section 77(Duty to Register charges), Section 129 (Financial Statement), Section 447(Punishment for Fraud) of Companies Act, 2013 and Section 403(Misappropriation of Property), Section 406 (Breach of Trust), and Section 420 (Cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and various other provisions and regulations governing them.
The NGO has claimed ‘complete inaction’ of the authorities against IndiaBulls who have taken huge loans from the public and private banks and have lent them to dummy companies created by them, thus filling their own pockets and evading tax.
–India Legal Bureau