Dewan Housing Finance Ltd moves HC, seeks discharge in corruption case by CBI

It argued it has undergone a Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and a new entity has been appointed as a resolution applicant.

The Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) has moved the Bombay high court challenging a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court’s refusal to discharge it from the corruption case involving its promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, and Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor.

DHFL said it should be discharged of all criminal proceedings registered against it prior to the CIRP after the resolution plan was approved. (Mint | Aniruddha Chowdhury))

It argued it has undergone a Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and a new entity has been appointed as a resolution applicant, as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). DHFL said it should be discharged of all criminal proceedings registered against it prior to the CIRP after the resolution plan was approved. But the special court rejected the plea and forced DHFL to move the high court.

Senior advocate Ravi Kadam, representing the DHFL, told a single-judge bench of justice S K Shinde that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had conducted the CIRP and approved Piramal Capital and Housing Finance Ltd (PCHFL) as the resolution applicant. Kadam added thereafter DHFL filed an application in the special court seeking discharge or dropping of proceedings against it as per section 32A of the IBC.

Kadam said yet the special court rejected the application for discharge saying DHFL would be prosecuted through its promoters the Wadhwan brothers as they were conducting its affairs when the alleged offence was committed.

Advocate Hiten Venegaonkar, who appeared for the CBI, opposed the plea saying the NCLT order was under challenge.

PCHFL also filed an intervention application through senior advocate Aabad Ponda and concurred with the arguments of Kadam about section 32A of IBC.