Supreme Court rejects depositors’ plea for increasing withdrawals limit on PMC bank.

On 18 October 2019, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea filed on behalf of scam-hit bank account holders Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC), seeking to lift restrictions imposed on cash withdrawals by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The petitioner Bejon Kumar Mishra told the lawyer Shashank Sudhi to file his petition on behalf of 500 PMC Bank account holders.

A bench headed by India’s chief justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “We are not inclined under Article 32 (writ jurisdiction) to entertain this petition. The petitioner may seek appropriate relief from the high   court.”

In a related case, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police, which is investigating the scam, told a court that the former director of the bank, Surjit Singh Arora, “abused his official position to facilitate the fraud.” Arora was produced in front of additional chief metropolitan magistrate SG Shaikh on October 17, 2019, who has held him in police custody until October 22, 2019. Arora is the fifth person charged in the case to be arrested.

The EOW said that until the RBI took over his affairs, Arora was the director and key member of the bank’s loan committee. “Arora was placed on the director’s body to check that the bank’s function is processed adequately. But, in order to facilitate the fraud he exploited his official position,” it said.

The court also remanded the former managing director of the bank, Joy Thomas, in 14-day judicial custody after his police remand ended on October 17, 2019.