The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up for filing a defective application a petitioner, Abhay Yadav, who has alleged that Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd (IHFL) misappropriated Rs 98,000 crore of public money.
Earlier on Wednesday, IHFL senior counsel A.M. Singhvi urged the vacation bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi to list the matter for hearing urgently, as frivolous allegations have been made against the company in the petition, which has been deliberately leaked to the media.
The company counsel represented that as a consequence of these acts, IHFL's market capitalisation has been eroded by Rs 8,000 crore in the two days since filing of the petition, causing losses to lakhs of shareholders.
The court observed that while the petitioner has sought directions against respondent numbers six and seven, but, surprisingly, no identities have been assigned against them in the writ petition.
Singhvi said that the petitioner had deliberately filed the plea in the vacation bench and created circumstances for the press to discuss it.
"A petition has been filed against Indiabulls, but the company has not been included in the list of respondents", he said, raising an objection to the petition.
The court rapped the petitioner, asking him to rectify the defects and said the matter will be taken up in July.
Singhvi said the company is already facing a huge loss in share value arising from the press reports following a plea filed by a milk vendor, who holds a total of only four shares.
The company alleged it is being blackmailed through the use of a novel technique.
According to IHFL, Yadav became its shareholder after purchasing the shares from the stock exchange on May 9.
In a statement earlier, IHFL has described the allegations against its Chairman Sameer Gehlaut and other directors as "bizzare" and designed to malign the reputation of the company.
The statement came after a plea was filed in the apex court on Monday seeking legal action against Indiabulls, Gehlaut and the other directors for alleged misappropriation of public money. It said thousands of crores had been siphoned off by Gehlaut and the directors of the firm for their personal use.
"The total loans on the books of Indiabulls Housing are approx Rs 90,000 crore. The allegation of siphoning-off Rs 98,000 crores is bizarre," the company said in a regulatory filing.
The company said that a racket of blackmailers has been trying to extort money from Indiabulls over the last two months threatening to write complaints to various government departments alleging siphoning off Rs 55,000 crore if Rs 10 crore was not paid to them, following which the company filed an FIR on June 4.
It further said that one of the people involved in the blackmail was arrested on June 7. Following the arrest, the group of people involved floated another complaint enhancing the amount in question to Rs 98,000 crore.
IHFL said the writ petition is a "desperate attempt" to malign its reputation.
The statement also said that the petitioner had bought four shares in the company a month back.
--IANS
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