Saturday 31 October 2015

Special Leave Petition 7961/2015 and Criminal Appeal 1270/2015 before Supreme Court - Synopsis until 30/10/2015


On 28/08/2015 Madras High Court had issued a judgment which is covered here wherein it held that the TNPID Act, 1997 was applicable to Helios and Matheson and that the investigation and arrests made by Economic Offences Wing against Helios and Matheson was valid and constitutional.

Helios and Matheson appealed to the Supreme Court of India by way of Special Leave Petition. Helios and Matheson made several statements before the Supreme Court of India to express its bonafide intention of repaying investors. Among the statements made Helios and Matheson mentioned that 48 crores was the sum repayable and that the scheme of repayment had begun. These were obviously false statements because we have ample proof that the sum repayable is far exceeding 48 crores as admitted by Helios and Matheson themselves and because as on 24/09/2015 no scheme for repayment had been accepted by the Madras High Court.

The Supreme Court issued an interim order on the basis of these statements staying all action by EOW pending the outcome of the final decision of the Supreme Court.

However the Supreme Court made the interim order conditional on Helios and Matheson depositing in the Madras High Court:
- Rs. 10 crore within 4 weeks of the order, i.e. by October end 2015
- Rs. 38 crore within 1 year of the order, i.e. by September end 2016
The money to be deposited is only by way of security and cannot be used for repaying investors unless so directed by the Supreme Court.

As on 31/10/2015 Helios and Matheson has not deposited the first 10 crores and therefore implicitly the Supreme Court interim order stands vacated and EOW can continue investigations until H&M obtains extension of the order from the Supreme Court.