CLB asks MCA to respond to Satyam plea for more time

The Company Law Board (CLB) today asked the Corporate Affairs Ministry to give its reply within 15 days on the plea of Mahindra Satyam seeking time till September 30 to file the financial reports from 2008 to 2010.

The CLB principal bench headed by chairman Justice D R Deshmukh directed the ministry to give its reply over the IT firm' plea for extension to publish the quarterly results from the December 2008 quarter to March 2010 quarter and other related documents, and posted the matter to June 30.

Last week Satyam moved the CLB seeking time till September 30 to file its financial statements. The CLB direction came after the Centre requested it to give some time to respond to the plea of the IT firm.

Satyam counsels submitted that since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Rs 10,000-crore accounting scam is not over yet, the company has only limited access to vital documents to prepare financial reports. Since the scam came to light in January 2009, the CBI and SIFO seized all the documents of the company.

They further submitted that CBI is granting only limited access to the documents and expressed inability to furnish annual financial report till June 30.

A Hyderabad local had in April directed CBI to give access to the documents to Satyam's new management.

Satyam had moved CLB last week seeking extension of time till September 30 to submit various documents and annual returns required by the statutory authorities.

The company had also sought exemption from publishing the quarterly results from the December 2008 quarter to the March 2010 quarter.

On October 15, 2009 CLB had given an extension to Satyam till June 30 to file all the documents, including the financial statements for financial years 2008 and 2009 and the quarterly financial reports as required under the listing agreements with the bourses.

Satyam, which has been renamed as Mahindra Satyam after its takeover by Tech Mahindra in April 2009, came under the scanner when its founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju confessed to cooking the company's books on January 6, 2009. The scam, the biggest in the country's corporate history, is estimated to be over Rs 10,000 crore.