CHENNAI: THE Madras High Court has constituted a panel led by Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, a former Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir High Court, to administer the affairs of Disc Assets Lead India Limited, formerly known as Disc Agro Tech Limited, in which about 12 lakh investors had deposited over Rs 1,137 crore over the years, but deposits were not repaid.The first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar formed the panel last week after perusing the report of Justice G M Akbar Ali, who had been appointed earlier as the Advocate-Commissioner and suggestions of senior advocates B Kumar and M S Krishnan, appointed amicus-curiae in the matter.
“Having regard to the number of depositors and the huge stakes involved, it would be a mammoth task to identify the investors, the lands that had been purchased, their value and to realise the actual value by way of sale of properties,” the bench said.The amicus had suggested setting up of a committee consisting of the competent authority under the TNPID Act, representatives from the State Revenue department, legal fraternity, economic offences wing, SEBI and a team of chartered accountants to carry out the task.
“This court deems it appropriate to constitute a committee headed by Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar,” the bench said. It shall consist of two senior members of the legal fraternity, namely Kumar and Krishnan, who had been assisting this court as Amicus-Curiaes and also C Manishankar, senior advocate and Additional Advocate-General. In addition, the committee shall include the competent authority under TNPID Act, namely Additional Commissioner of Land Administration or a person nominated by him, not below the rank of Joint Secretary to State Government, two nominees from State Revenue department in the rank of Revenue Divisional Officer, a nominee of Additional Director General of Police, Economic Offences Wing, not below the rank of Superintendent of Police and a nominee of the Regional Director, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) not below the rank of Deputy General Manager.”
The firm —- Disc Assets Lead India Ltd — was initially carrying on business in farming, horticulture, sericulture cultivation etc. Later the company floated various schemes on purchasing, developing and maintaining agricultural land by way of installment payment and cash down payment plan. As many as 12 lakh customers invested about Rs 1,200 crore in the schemes.Though the schemes were started in 2006 all the three-year, four-year and five-year schemes should have been over by 2011. The matter then went to SEBI, which told the directors of the company not to float any new schemes and not to collect any fresh money and not to dispose of the property and not to divert the funds of investors.
Following a direction from SEBI, the Economic Offences Wing registered a case on the basis of a complaint from one of the investors in September 2016.The company, challenging the orders of SEBI, filed writ petitions before the Madurai Bench which appointed retired High Court judge Justice GM Akbar Ali as Advocate-Commissioner. In his report, the AC said the company had collected a total amount of Rs 1,137 crore from 12,27,274 depositors.
The bench directed the depositors and investors to approach the committee by way of an application with details of their investments and documents in support of their claims within the time to be stipulated by it through advertisements in two English and two Tamil newspapers.The committee shall identify the property of the company and its sister concerns, directors and transferees, ascertain their location, marketability and title thereto and thereafter proceed to sell the property. The amounts realised from the sale proceeds shall be deposited in a special account opened for this purpose.The bench also restrained the company, its directors, its sister concerns from transferring or alienating any of the property and assets, except through the committee.