Karnataka High Court to hear Franklin Templeton MF matter on priority

Court directs concerned parties to file any rejoinders by July 29

The Karnataka High Court (HC) on Wednesday gave a preliminary hearing to the matter pertaining to wind-up of schemes by Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund (FT MF), and said the matter would be heard on priority in order to complete the hearing within three months, said people privy of the development.
 

“The Hon’ble Karnataka HC considered the matters related to winding-up of six debt schemes of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund and issued notices to the concerned parties. The parties are directed to file counter affidavit/statement of objections and rejoinder, if any, by July 22, 2020 and July 29, 2020 respectively,” said a spokesperson for FT MF.
 

“The next hearing is scheduled on July 15, 2020,” the spokesperson added.
 

Last month, the Supreme Court (SC) had directed that cases relating FT MF’s move of winding up six of its yield-oriented schemes be heard in Karnataka HC.
 

The SC didn’t intervene on Gujarat HC’s stay order on e-voting process that was required to take forward the wind-up process.
 

As the matter was being heard at multiple HCs, FT MF had sought that the cases be heard in a single court through a transfer petition, subject to the SC’s approval.
 

The e-voting process would have given unitholders of Franklin’s schemes under wind-up, options on how they wish to take forward the wind-up and scheme asset monetisation process.