63 moons suit: HC gives more time to Chidambaram to file reply

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed former finance minister P Chidambaram and two senior bureaucrats to file replies in four weeks to a suit filed by 63 moons technology, seeking Rs 10,000 crore in damages.

Chidambaram and the two bureaucrats, K P Krishnan and Ramesh Abhishek, failed to file their affidavits within the eight-week period granted by the court earlier, said 63 moons' counsel Vishwanathan Iyer.

Justice A K Menon on Friday directed them to file their statements within four weeks, the lawyer said.

The court also warned them that no further time will be given and if they failed to file their affidavits, the matter will be heard 'ex-parte' (in absence of them or their counsels), Iyer informed.

On October 22, the court had directed the trio to file their affidavits within eight weeks.

63 moons technologies (previously Financial Technologies Ltd) has accused Chidambaram and others of taking "malicious and malafide" action during the Congress leader's tenure as finance minister in connection with the Rs 5,600 crore NSEL scam.

Krishnan was then secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development and Abhishek was chairman of the Forward Markets Commission.

The suit alleged that the company was facing continuous "targeted and malafide actions" in the wake of an 'engineered payment default crisis' at its subsidiary National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).

The investigating agencies did not trace any money trail to NSEL, 63 moons and its founder Jignesh Shah, but the group was targeted as part of a "conspiracy", it said.

The company has demanded Rs 10,000 crore in damages from the trio.

The Supreme Court on December 4 granted bail to Chidambaram in a money laundering case related to INX Media, after he spent 105 days in custody.