A vacation bench of the Supreme Court bench on Wednesday declined to hear a petition filed by minority shareholders of Bank of Rajasthan, opposing the proposed merger of the troubled Udaipur-based lender with ICICI Bank and asked them to approach a regular bench.
This is second time that an apex court bench is refusing to hear the plea. On May 31, a two-judge vacation bench had refused to hear a petition filed by petitioner Ram Prasad Somani, stating that he should approach a regular bench next month.
Following this Somani moved the court again today but an apex court bench, comprising justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar asked Somani, who is opposing the proposed merger of BoR with ICICI Bank, to approach any other regular bench of the apex court.
The court said the petitioner has not disclosed his shareholding in the BoR, so they are unable to permit him to argue his case. The bench also said this is not a fit case to be heard by a vacation bench and directed Somani to make his plea before a regular bench in July, when the court resumes after the summer vacation.
Somani contended that as the shares owned by the PK Tayal family and his group companies are under judicial scrutiny, they cannot enter into a merger scheme with ICICI Bank. According to Somani, the Tayals had acquired over 15 per cent share in BoR in violation of Sebi norms.
Following this, Sebi had ordered a probe into the shareholding patterns of the Tayals, and this March it had banned the Tayals and their associated entities from dealing in stock markets until further orders.
On May 23, ICICI Bank had agreed to take over BoR through a share-swap deal that values the troubled bank at about Rs 3,000 crore.
Somani had, in 2009, also approached the apex court against the Tayals increasing their stake in BoR.
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