Bombay HC agrees to hear PIL seeking relief from RBI order on withdrawal limit in PMC bank

The Bombay High Court on Thursday agreed to hear the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which sought relief from an RBI order of Rs 10,000 withdrawal limit in Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank.

The plea was filed by a Mumbai-based NGO, Consumer Action Network (CAN) which is fighting the case on the behalf of account holders who are facing the brunt of the RBI's order which was passed a few weeks ago. The petition was first filed by the non-profit organisation on September 30.

The RBI had rolled out an order stating that PMC Bank will not do any business for the next six months and will cap depositors withdrawals at Rs 10,000.

It is believed that this order has left an impact on the customers of financial institutions who are traders and daily wage earners.

Not only that, as many as two PMC Bank customers died within 24 hours, including one Fattomal Punjabi and a 51-year-old former employee of Jet Airways named Sanjay Gulati. Their families have alleged that they were "under stress" over the crisis in PMC Bank.

Also, two former officials of the bank's regulator and six PMC bank employees are at present under the scanner of EOW for their alleged involvement in the scam.

A few weeks ago, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized and identified movable and immovable assets worth more than Rs 3,830 crore owned by Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) in connection with the case.

The Mumbai court also has sent former PMC chairman Waryam Singh and HDIL promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan to the police custody in alleged connection with the bank fraud case.

The Esplanade court in Mumbai remanded the trio to police custody till October 16. According to the police, PMC bank officials gave loans to HDIL between 2008 and 2019 despite no repayment of the previous loans.