ANKUR GUPTA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present writ petition has been filed as a Public Interest Litigation ('PIL') under Article 226 of the Constitution for directing the Respondent Nos. 1 to 5 to take action against the group of companies and individuals i.e. Respondents No. 6 to 23 on the allegations of money laundering and consequential loss to the public exchequer, by way of evasion of taxes.

(2.) It is stated that issuance of shareholding of Respondent No. 8 in favour of Respondent No. 7 and its subsequent transfer to Respondent No. 9 are grossly undervalued. It is stated that the transfer has been done to cause loss to the public exchequer. It is stated that even though Respondent No. 8 was an asset rich Company, however, its shares were transferred by Respondent No. 7 in favour of Respondent No. 9 at a value less than the market price.

(3.) Learned senior counsel for Respondent No. 7, 10 and 12 states that the present petition is motivated. He states that in fact the Petitioner herein had filed another W.P.(Crl.) 2383/2021, wherein Respondent No. 16 herein was also a party. He states the said writ petition was dismissed with costs by the Division Bench of this Court vide order dtd. 25/3/2022 after returning a finding that the same is motivated. He states that in the SLP (Crl.) No. 5179/2022 filed by the Petitioner against the said dismissal though the Supreme Court waived the costs, however, it refused to interfere with the judgment passed by the Division Bench of this Court. He states that commonality of Respondent No. 16 in the present writ petition and the earlier writ petition evidences that the Petitioner herein is seeking to settle scores with the companies and entities in which Respondent No. 16 is a Director/Partner.