Date:27/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/27/stories/2008052754230500.htm

New Delhi

Court declines to stay Mercantile Bank’s annual general meeting

J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to stay the annual general meeting of the Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank scheduled for June 5.

Without passing any order on the special leave petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank Shareholders Welfare Association, a vacation Bench of Justice C. K. Thakker and Justice L.S. Panta directed that the matter be listed for hearing in the second week of July.

Plea dismissed

The petition by the bank’s original shareholders is directed against a Madras High Court judgment dismissing their plea to restrain 11 respondents from exercising their right as shareholders of the bank, transferring 95,418 shares and holding of the annual general meeting on June 5. In 1994, the Essar Group acquired 1,91,455 equity shares of the bank through a memorandum of understanding with the original shareholders.

As the board refused to register the transfer of shares, the Reserve Bank of India too refused to acknowledge it. As a result, the petition said, the agreements between the original shareholders and the Essar Group became void.