Hc Notice On Swamy Plea Against Chidambaram

The Delhi High Court yesterday issued notice on Janata Party president Subramanian Swamys allegation that finance minister P Chidambaram in 1991 had purchased shares of Fairgrowth Financial Services Ltd under promoters quota in violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Justice Jaspal Singh issued notice to the government of National Capital Territory on his petition appealing against the lower court order dismissing the complaint against Chidambaram in limni (without issuing notice to respondents).

Swamy contended by purchasing 10,000 shares at a face value of Rs 10 per share when the market price was much higher, then commerce minister had violated Section 11 and 13 of the act as it could be construed as receiving a consideration from the company.

Chidambaram spent around Rs 150,000 to get the shares which would have cost him Rs 40 to 50 lakh at the market price, Swamy claimed.

Further, the joint parliamentary committee had in its report termed this as improper and noted that the shares were given to the then commerce minister as the managing director of FFSL was known to him, Swamy alleged.

The Janata Party president alleged that due to the issuance of promoters shares to Chidambaram, public sector undertakings (PSUs) invested around Rs 450 crore in FFSL making its shares in the stock market take a bullish trend.

He said the civil servants in the country were explicitly banned from accepting promoters shares and Chidambaram by obtaining these shares while being a public servant has violated the anti-corruption law.

Swamy questioned that whether the buying of shares by Chidambaram was an inducement for the PSUs to invest in FFSL and, if so, would it be regarded as a consideration received by the then commerce minister to cause the inducement.

He said CBI during the mega stock market scam involving Harshad Mehta had raided the company and had seized 497 documents relating to various transactions and those could be scrutinised to throw more light on the issue in hand.

Swamys application in this regard under Section 190 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was dismissed by special judge Ajit Bharihoke. The case would come up for further hearing on September 5.