BackSupreme Court to hear Franklin Templeton investors' plea on Friday
While the Supreme Court will hear the petition for admission, simultaneously Gujarat High Court will also begin hearing arguments on main grievances raised by petitioners
PremiumWith each passing day the legal troubles and mess around refunding investors of Franklin Templeton India is escalating. The Supreme Court on Friday will hear a petition filed by a group of eight investors against Franklin Templeton and its decision to wind up its six debt schemes on 23 April.
This is the fourth court case Franklin has to battle against investors who are stuck in 6 shuttered debt schemes. One court case is in Madras High Court filed by Chennai Financial Markets Accountability (CFMA), another by an individual investor Amruta Garg in Delhi High Court, in the Gujarat High Court petition filed by promoter director of Rasna Pvt Ltd the court has stayed the e-voting process.
While the Supreme Court will hear the petition for admission, simultaneously Gujarat High Court will also begin hearing arguments on main grievances raised by petitioners.
These escalating legal battles will further influence the refund timelines when the 300,000 investors and their investments are already stuck for over 50 days. The refund currently already stands stayed as the Gujarat High Court has stayed the unit holders e-voting process, which would have authorised monetising of the underlying assets and refunding investors.
It will be upto the Supreme Court to adjudicate and resolve the issues around these investor grievances. Considering that the facts in all these cases are same, and if Supreme Court believes that substantially the same questions of law are pending before it and two or more High Courts, then it can adjudicate and dispose of all the other cases itself.
In the Supreme Court petition the clutch of investors are seeking as interim relief that winding up of the six debt schemes is stayed and reopen the schemes.
"Direct Sebi to evolve a mechanism for ensuring immediate repayment of the dues of the Unitholders. Direct refund of dues atleast upto Rs. 2 Lakh," said the petitioners in plea.
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