NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday turned down the State’s request to transfer the case pertaining to Margadarsi Chit Fund Private Limited (MCFPL) to the Andhra Pradesh High Court from Telangana High Court. While hearing the plea of the AP government, a vacation bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal issued notices to MCFPL and other respondents and posted the matter to July 18. “We’re not passing any interim order. We will hear out the matter,” the bench said.
Urging the court to transfer the pending case, counsel for the State government and senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul said the pleas should not be pending in the Telangana High Court.
Opposing the plea, senior advocate Harish Salve for Margadarsi Chit Fund argued, “This kind of politics should not be allowed. What is worse, they challenge the jurisdiction in HC and the HC upholds it.”
The State government had argued that the Telangana HC lacked jurisdiction as all the investigations were undertaken by the authorities pursuant to the registration of FIRs not only for violating the Chit Funds Act but also under the IPC.
The plea said, “The cause of action is that the situs of the offence is in AP, and thus, it is only the Hon’ble High Court of Andhra Pradesh that will have jurisdiction over these matters and no other High Court. The mere fact that the corporate office of MCFPL is in Hyderabad would not confer any jurisdiction, whatsoever, on the Telangana HC.”
The AP government had contended that even if it is held that a small part of cause of action may arise in Telangana because of the location of MCFPL’s registered office, the majority of the cause of action arises in AP since the investigations are being undertaken by the AP police and other authorities under the Chit Fund Act.
“Largest number of subscribers to the chit funds of MCFPL is located in AP,” the plea said and argued, “In any event, even under the Chit Fund Act, every branch office/foreman under MCFPL is deemed to be an independent office, and is subject to the jurisdiction of the local Registrar of Chits in the district concerned.