The Andhra Pradesh high court on Friday granted a stay on the public notice issued by the Registrar of Chits in the media against Margadarsi Chit Funds Private Limited, seeking objections from the chit subscribers.
The high court also asked the Registrar not to take any further action against the company based on the response to the public notice. It said it had already given interim orders on the petitions filed by the chit subscribers.
The high court said it would hear the case by combining the petitions of the subscribers and the Margadarsi Chit Funds.
“Both the petitions are inter-linked and therefore, they have to be heard together,” the bench said.
On July 30, the Registrar of Chits issued a full-page advertisements in newspapers — both Telugu and English— carrying a “notice” to the subscribers of Margadarsi Chit Fund.
The public notice explained the alleged violations committed by the Margadarsi Chit Fund Pvt Ltd (MCFPL), owned by media baron Ch Ramoji Rao and the ongoing investigation by CID.
It also mentioned that the Andhra Pradesh registrar of chits had decided to tentatively wind-up chit groups. If there were any objections, the subscribers could write to it, said the registrar in the notice.
“It is common knowledge that the Andhra Pradesh Stamps and Registration Department has issued a number of winding-up orders related to certain chit groups operated by the Margadarsi Chit Funds Pt Ltd. These winding-up orders were contested by MCFPL and a few subscribers before the courts,” said CID Inspector General Ch Srikanth in a statement.
“It has come to the notice of the Registration and Stamps Department, which in turn informed the CID that some of these writ petitions allegedly filed by a few of the subscribers were fraudulently signed by misinforming the subscribers to obtain signatures by agents or interested members of MCFPL,” he added.
“Therefore, we caution the subscribers of MCFPL to kindly read the documents produced before them for signatures by any agent or manager of MCFPL,” he said.
The Margadarsi group said these allegations were imaginary, arbitrary, and perverse, and the that state government was pursuing a vendetta against the the Ramoji Group and the Eenadu newspaper.
The Andhra Pradesh Home Department on July 27 issued orders to attach movable assets belonging to MCFPL, which had made investments in the share capital of Usha Kiran Media Ltd and Ushodaya Enterprises Pvt Ltd.
Earlier, the authorities had already issued Government Orders N. 104 and 116, which led to the attachment of movable properties of MCFPL totalling ₹1,035 crore.
