RATUL PURI Vs. BANK OF BARODA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has invoked the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, 1950, seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) Shorn of unnecessary details, the case of the petitioner is that he is the Chairman of Hindustan Power Group Private Limited, which operates 1200 MW1 'Megawatt' power plant and supplies electricity to three States viz., State of Uttar Pradesh, State of Madhya Pradesh and State of Haryana. It is stated that in order to run its business, the company was engaged in negotiations with SBI 'State Bank of India' for availing certain loan facilities. To his shock, the petitioner discovered, through an email dtd. 22/2/2023 from the officers of the SBI, that his name appeared in the Central Fraud Registry "CFR' at the instance of the respondent/Bank of Baroda (hereinafter referred as the respondent-bank) with regard to the account of M/s. Moser Baer Solar Limited ['MBSL']. The petitioner claims that the actions of the respondent-bank are in complete violation of principles of natural justice, and therefore, void ab initio. As regards the background leading to the aforesaid categorization, it is stated by the petitioner that his father had founded Moser Baer India Limited ['MBIL'] in the year 1983, which initially produced Time Recorder Units. Over time, MBIL diversified its product range, focusing on digital storage, including manufacture of floppy diskettes, and eventually CD 'Compact Disks's and DVD 'Digital Video Disks"s, which company had a flourishing business from 1993-2005, but after 2005 suddenly with the change in technology, CDs/DVDs, started slowly becoming obsolete, and therefore, MBIL decided to diversify and enter into other business in the light of growing demands for alternate energy and information on global warming. Thus, MBIL decided to invest in manufacturing of Solar Cells and Modules. Accordingly, two subsidiaries were found viz. M/s. Moser Baer Phot Voltaic Limited (presently known as 'Helios Photo Voltaic Limited') in 2005 and MBSL in 2007.

(3.) The petitioner further states that, at one point, MBIL's solar business valued at over US$ 1 billion in the year 2007, and there were several financial institutions which had made investments in the project. However, the global financial crisis in the year 2007, compounded by the Government of India's failure to curb dumping by certain foreign countries or to impose substantial duties, significantly impacted MBIL's financial stability and that of its subsidiaries. Consequently, in 2011-12, MBSL approached the Corporate Debt Reconstruction Cell of the RBI 'Reserve Bank of India' and pending consideration of the Flash Report by the bank or consortium banks, a debtor-creditor agreement was entered into with the banks and debtor and in the meanwhile TEV 'Techno Economic Viability' report was sought from an independent agency to a conduct stock audit of the company. Eventually CDR-EG 'Corporate Debt Restructuring-Empowered Group", a Master Restructuring Agreement ['MRA'] and a Trust and Retention Agreement ['TRA'] were drawn, deliberated and signed between the company and the banks to put into effect that CDR package for the company.