PMC Bank Crisis: Bombay HC Allows Auction Of HDIL Assets
Live LawIn a huge relief for the account holders of crisis-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday allowed a public interest litigation filed by one Sarosh Damania seeking auction of all Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited assets either mortgaged with the bank or attached by the Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai. In an affidavit in another PIL filed by depositors of PMC, RBI referred to its own inspection report of PMC bank dated March 31, 2018, which stated - "The bank submitted fraudulently manipulated data to RBI for sample checks, the sample of accounts picked for inspection did not contain undisclosed HDIL related accounts. Conflict of interest of Shri Waryam Singh as Chairman of PMC Bank and as a former Managing Director of HDIL was also commented upon in the report along with the attempt by the bank to show disclosed accounts of HDIL group as standard by sanction of new loans to close old NPA accounts in non-adherence of RBI Master Circular dated July 1, 2015 on IRAC norms. HDIL's counsel Vikram Chaudhari had argued that the total value of encumbered properties is Rs.11,000 crore and as per EOW's FIR, the total dues to PMC bank are Rs.4355 crore, hence the properties that are already attached by the EOW or are mortgaged with the bank can be liquidated and there was no need to auction or attach unencumbered properties.