National Company Law Tribunal Directs CEOs Of Axis Bank, StanChart To Be Present During Next Hearing Of IL&FS Case
[ By Bobby Anthony ]The National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) Mumbai bench has directed the CEOs of Axis Bank and Standard Chartered Bank to be present during the next hearing of the IL&FS case on December 16.Hearing a contempt petition against Amitabh Chaudhry and Zarin Daruwala, the CEOs of Axis Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, respectively, the tribunal observed recently that both...
The National Company Law Tribunal's (NCLT) Mumbai bench has directed the CEOs of Axis Bank and Standard Chartered Bank to be present during the next hearing of the IL&FS case on December 16.
Hearing a contempt petition against Amitabh Chaudhry and Zarin Daruwala, the CEOs of Axis Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, respectively, the tribunal observed recently that both the executives have not presented themselves before the bench.
The tribunal has fixed the next date of hearing on December 16 and asked Chaudhry as well as Daruwala to be present, noting that that both these bankers had never presented themselves before the bench after the issue surfaced last December.
The case relates to these banks allowing the former head of ILFS Financial Services Ramesh Chandra Bawa and his family to withdraw money from their accounts with these banks and also accessing the lockers even after these accounts were frozen by the NCLT on December 3, 2018.
However, both the banks submitted that the particular transactions took place before they got the copy of the NCLT order freezing these accounts.
Contempt notices were issued by the NCLT after the Ministry of Corporate Affairs alleged that the banks facilitated Bawa to withdraw or transfer money from their accounts to his wife Ashakiran and daughter Akansha, besides letting him access the lockers, even after their bank accounts were frozen.
On April 26, 2019, the NCLT issued contempt notices to Chaudhry and Daruwala. Later it also issued a similar contempt notice Bawa for not following its directions.
The ministry also informed the NCLT that Bawa withdrew or transferred Rs 1 crore and Rs 14 lakh from Axis Bank accounts in two instances, violating the December 3, 2018 NCLT order freezing these accounts.
The ministry’s lawyer had also stated that Bawa accessed his lockers with these banks four times after December 3.
It may be recalled that after freezing these bank accounts, the NCLT on December 3 had also restrained the former directors of IL&FS Group from disposing of or creating any third-party rights on their properties.