The Supreme Court on Monday suggested the counsel for the Telangana AgriGold customers and agents welfare association to make a mention before the Telangana High Court (HC) about its plea for speedy disposal of batch cases pending before the latter seeking CBI probe into AgriGold scam and return of the monies to over 32 lakh depositors.
The bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta, and Ajay Rastogi, was dealing with the petition filed by Telangana Agri Gold customers and agents welfare association, seeking directions to the authorities concerned to establish a mechanism to disburse the claims of depositors.
Petitioner’s counsel K Sravan Kumar submitted that the HC had passed several interim orders in 2015. However, the case has not come up for hearing since March last year. The total amount to be paid to the depositors is Rs 6,380 crore.
Due to delay in case hearing, the amounts realised in auction of various properties of AgriGold company and the decision of AP government to distribute about Rs 1,050 crore to the depositors could not be implemented.
The bench said that the delay might be due to the pandemic. If the petitioner wanted transfer of the said cases to the SC then it might take another 10 years for its disposal, the bench observed. The petitioner’s advocate said he just wants a suggestion to the HC for its speedy disposal.
Refusing to pass any orders, the bench suggested the advocate to make a mention before the HC on his plea, and granted liberty to him to withdraw the present case.