Even as an NGO informed the Supreme Court that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had approved a long list of corporate governance irregularities by IHFL, ignoring market regulator Sebi's negative reports, the ED on Wednesday pointed out significant irregularities in the financial transactions of Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IHFL), now known as Sammaan Capital Ltd.
On November 19, a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan, and N K Singh asked a "responsible officer" from MCA to stay in court with the original IHFL files, despite snide objections to the claims made by the NGO, Citizens Whistleblowers Forum, from senior advocate Harish Salve, who was representing Indiabulls."We would like to view the Ministry of Corporate Affairs' original documents pertaining to the compounding of irregularities that SEBI mentioned in its report.
The bench said, "We would also like to know which specific cases you (MCA) have been so generous in tolerating corporate governance violations."
Advocate A Venkatesh Rao and additional solicitor general S V Raju told the Supreme Court that "there is something seriously wrong in this case."
The panel ordered ED to provide clarification on the CBI's assertion in an affidavit that there was preliminary proof of IHFL's money laundering activities.
Additionally, it requested that the ED provide an explanation of the actions it took in response to the CBI affidavit.
Prashant Bhushan tried to describe the alleged illegal actions of IHFL in collusion with other banks and realtors for the NGO.
The petition was "nothing but a cut paste of another similar petition which was dismissed by the Delhi HC," according to Salve, who referred to the matter as "blackmail litigation."
A M Singhvi stated that seven agencies had looked into the cases against IHFL and given it a clean sheet, while Salve stated that the full amount of the loan had been recovered.
