Proposed Bengal anti-chit fund law may face legal hurdle: Left

Kolkata, April 27 (IANS) With West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government mooting a new Bill to rein chit fund companies, the Left Front Saturday said the new law, if passed, was likely to be challenged in a court of law.

"Much like the Singur Act, this Bill may face legal challenge," Front chairman Biman Bose said here adding that the government should have gone for the West Bengal Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Institutions Act, passed by the earlier regime and sent for presidential assent.

There has already been much politics over the proposed law, with Banerjee claiming that there was a need for a stronger law as the Bill passed by the Left had "certain loopholes and the president of India had asked the then government to make some changes in it".

The Front in turn claimed the idea of the new Bill was an effort at dilly dallying things to afford the "culprits of Saradha chit fund mess to go scot-free".

Bose accused the Banerjee regime of being insensitive to the cause of the investors who have been duped by the fraudulent Saradha Group.

"Had the government been really interested in rescuing the people affected by the Saradha chit fund mess, it would have gone ahead with the earlier Bill. The new bill will have to go through a number of stages which is time consuming, while the earlier bill has already cleared all those steps and was amended as per the suggestions of the president," he claimed.

Experts have also raised questions on the government's intentions to give retrospective effect to the proposed law saying it being a criminal enactment, giving retrospective effect would go against legal principles.