Bank of Raj & ICICI Bank merger: SC tags PIL with similar case

The Supreme Court today ordered tagging of a PIL with a pending matter seeking a CBI probe into a decision of market regulator SEBI to allow promoters of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) to sell their shares post its amalgamation with the ICICI Bank in 2010.
A bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Arun Misra was initially reluctant to admit the plea, filed through lawyer Prashant Bhushan, by asking him to approach the High Court.
However, when Bhsuhan said a similar issue was pending adjudication in the apex court, the bench allowed the plea to be tagged along with an earlier plea which was filed against an order of SAT/SEBI.

The PIL, filed by Bangalore resident Arun Kumar Agrawal, has sought directions to the SEBI or any other body to "quantify the gains made by promoters of Bank of Rajasthan and other entities jointly" and order RBI to levy appropriate penalty from the violators.
The Reserve Bank of India had given its approval to the merger of Bank of Rajasthan with ICICI Bank in 2010, it said.
According to the petition, on a reference made by RBI the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) conducted an investigation into the affairs of Bank of Rajasthan Ltd for the period June 2007-December 2009.

The investigation revealed that the promoters of Bank of Rajasthan had increased their stake in the bank while they had given an undertaking to RBI to decrease their stake in line with the permitted shareholding of the promoter in a private bank, it said.
Further, the promoters deliberately declared in the quarterly filings that they had decreased their stake while they had been actually increasing their stake through entities funded by them, Agrawal alleged in his petition.
On investigation by SEBI, the promoters were found to be in violation of various sections of Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices relating to Securities Market Rules. The profit made by the promoters/entities on the excess holding of 34.54 per cent was over 500 crores, the plea claimed, adding that under law, this profit was to be disgorged and fine levied on it.