SC stays FIR filed against YES Bank by Subhash Chandra in Dish TV case

The Supreme Court has stayed the first information report filed with the Uttar Pradesh police by Essel group founder Subhash Chandra against YES Bank, and officials of Videocon D2H. As part of its investigation, the UP police had frozen the voting rights on YES Bank’s stake held in Dish TV India.

The SC said it would not permit police officers sitting in Gautam Buddh Nagar to freeze voting rights of YES Bank’s stake in Dish TV India. Dish TV announced last night that it has postponed it’s annual general meeting, scheduled for today, by a month.

The SC said the UP police had frozen YES Bank’s voting rights which even company law tribunals had not done. This will only lead to lawlessness in the country, the court said.

The SC said the freeze on voting rights amounted to short-circuiting of judicial orders by using the police. “We can’t allow this. Using the criminal law process to achieve results in civil proceedings will be dangerous. We have to look at the overall consequence,” the SC said and issued notices to all the parties.

YES Bank had acquired a 24.5 per cent stake in Dish TV after its promoters failed to repay their debt and banks invoked the pledged shares. In September last year, the founder of Essel group, Subhash Chandra, filed a police complaint against the bank and its former management led by Rana Kapoor accusing them of fraud while brokering a merger transaction between Videocon D2H and Dish TV India. The matter is under investigation by the police.

The lender moved the highest court after the Allahabad High Court dismissed its petition on Thursday to quash the FIR filed by Chandra with the Uttar Pradesh police.

As part of its investigation, the Crime Branch, Gautam Buddh Nagar police had frozen the voting rights on the stake held by YES Bank in Dish TV.

YES Bank wants to replace the current board of Dish TV with its own nominees as the lender is of the opinion that the board is siding with the Chandra family – whose stake in the company has decreased to 6 per cent. .

YES Bank and Dish TV India did not comment on the matter.