Satyam case: HC rejects auditors plea on disciplinary action

PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors, Subramani Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri, accused in the Rs 14,000-crore Satyam accounting fraud, today received a jolt as the Delhi High Court today rejected their pleas against the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

A Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna dismissed the petitions filed by the two auditors, who had sought a stay on disciplinary proceedings initiated by the ICAI for their alleged involvement in the Satyam accounting fraud.

The regulatory body of chartered accountants had initiated separate disciplinary proceedings against the official auditors of the scam-hit Satyam Computer after its founder-promoter B Ramalinga Raju confessed fudging the accounts.

The proceedings were sought to be initiated by ICAI on the ground that despite they being the official auditors of the IT major, how come such an accounting fraud went undetected.