Uti Moves Ril For Return Of Switched Shares

The move follows RCS' inaction on the issue despite UTI's reminder last month in which it had asked the RIL registrar to expedite process of replacing the original shares. The letter to RIL was sent on August 20.

The letter says that since there has been no response from the company's registrars to their earlier communique, it is appropriate that RIL takes up the issue with the registrars and delivers to UTI the original lot of RIL shares at the earliest.

Earlier in June, UTI had asked RCS to return the originally lodged shares which were switched at the instance of the sellers. The institution then sent a reminder to the registrar in July asking it to expedite the process of replacing the switched lot.

Canbank had also sent a reminder to RCS around the same time asking for a replacement. However, there has been no further communication from them and they seem content to wait for some more time before deciding on a further course of action, Canbank sources said.

UTI had originally lodged the RIL shares for transfer with the registrars in 1992. It had bought them in two secondary market transactions in two lots of shares. The first lot consisted of 24 lakh (22 lakh for domestic schemes and 2 lakh for offshore schemes) and a second lot of 30 lakh shares. Of this, their custodian Stock Holding Corporation of India had found that 48.9 lakh shares were switched.

In their earlier communique to UTI in June, RCS had said they would replace the switched lot with the one that they had originally lodged within 15-20 days. However, nothing happened and their inaction prompted UTI to send the reminder, officials said.