Raj HC asks scam-hit Adarsh society’s liquidator to examine fund release claims of depositors

The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday asked the liquidator of the Adarsh Credit Cooperative Society, allegedly involved in the embezzlement of over Rs 9,000 crore of its 20 lakh depositors and over 3.75 lakh investors, to settle the claims for release of funds of over 1,500 depositors of the Society.

In a major relief to the depositors of the cooperative society, a Jodhpur bench of the high court asked the liquidator to examine the claims and settle them preferably within 90 days.

The order was given by the bench Justice Dinesh Mehta on a joint plea by 1,573 depositors, who had pleaded to the court that their deposits were stuck in the scam-hit society despite the release of the deposits of other creditors.

Petitioners counsel Girish Sankhla submitted to the court that the petitioners have approached it with a limited prayer for a direction to the respondents to decide on the claim applications of petitioners seeking the release of their money lying deposited with the society.

"We stated in our petition that all these petitioners had deposited money in the society. But their money got stuck after the society offices were shut following the scam," Sankhla said.

He added that the government had appointed a liquidator for the society to facilitate the refund of money to the depositors. "The society had released deposits of some depositors but the same of the petitioners had not been released. Despite repeated reminders, the matter was not being taken up seriously by the liquidator," Sankhla said, adding that all these aggrieved depositors then moved the high court. This limited prayer by the petitioners, however, did not find any protest by the assistant solicitor general, after which the court directed respondents to decide on the application filed by the petitioners expeditiously.

The respondents included the Union government, Serious Fraud Investigation Office and investigating agencies (SOG/ATS) apart from the society.

The court asked the respondents to take the decision preferably within 90 days from the date of receipt of the copy of this order under the rules and guidelines.

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