Mumbai, Mar 8 (IANS): The Bombay High Court has ruled that the competent authority (CA) in the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) payment default case must distribute the amount lying in its escrow account to genuine claimants whose outstanding s between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh on a priority basis.

Hearing the appeal of a Pune-based NSEL claimant, Rabibai Mohamad Ismail, a two-judge bench of Justice S.S. Shinde and Justice Manish Pitale ordered that the amount lying in the CA's escrow account be distributed among NSEL claimants with outstanding between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, so that the small claimants are paid off all their dues.

In a statement, NSEL said it has been in support of this distribution to small claimants from the very beginning. Accordingly, NSEL also paid Rs 180 crore, taking a loan from 63 Moons, to small claimants - 100 per cent to claimants of up to Rs 2 lakh and 50 per cent to claimants of up to Rs 10 lakh outstanding.

However, the so-called trader fora such as NSEL Investors Action Group (NIAG), NSEL Aggrieved and Recovery Association (NAARA) and NSEL Investors Forum (NIF) had opposed and got the petition derailed.

"The CA under the influence of Ketan Shah who heads NIAG and other investor protection fora suppressed the government communication favoring payment to small traders, but got it distributed to all, including HNI claimants instead of seeking clarification from the HC," the bench said.

NSEL has requested the CA to follow the due process of law and distribute the payout through the High Court Committee (HCC) after verifying the genuineness and authenticity of the claims as per the bye-laws of the exchange, which is the only rightful process for distribution.

Exchange bye-laws permit such mutual distribution for small traders while the NIAG or any other investor forum did not put any effort or file cases, and only NSEL and 63 Moons' efforts have resulted in the recovery.

"As per the information available on social media, the personal income of Ketan Shah has increased from Rs 16 lakh to Rs 16 crore after he started representing the so-called investors association and started trading the pain of the traders," the NSEL noted.

However, according to NSEL, Ketan Shah used to masquerade as the messiah of the investors, and opposed this order favouring small claimants, seeking to challenge the same in the apex court. The Bombay High Court kept the order in abeyance for two weeks with no further extensions.

The NSEL pointed out that the stand taken by the NIAG and Ketan Shah makes it quite obvious that the NIAG in connivance with tainted brokers was going all out to derail the judiciary process, misleading and delaying the investigation, and obstructing the distribution process.

"By challenging the Bombay High Court order favouring 6,445 small claimants out of the 13,000 so-called claimants, whose interest is Ketan Shah protecting," asked a spokesperson of NSEL.

"Over Rs 250 crore is lying in the escrow account which, if distributed among the small claimants, would clear the outstanding of around 6,445 claimants. Under the guise of helping small and suffering claimants, Ketan Shah and NIAG misguided the government and investigating agencies by trading their tears. Now, Ketan Shah is taking an opposite stand and betraying them by opposing the Bombay High Court order," the spokesperson said.

NSEL, with the help of 63 Moons, has been continuously striving to recover the default amount from the 22 defaulting entities, which has resulted in obtaining the decree of Rs 3,365 crore and crystallisation of liability by the High Court Committee to the tune of over Rs 900 crore, which is pending confirmation by the Bombay High Court, and an injunction of Rs 4,515 crore. This entire process has been due to the single-handed effort of NSEL and 63 Moons.

Notably, the government of Maharashtra, based on the suggestion received from the Ministry of Finance, via a letter dated August 20, 2018 had instructed the CA and EOW, Mumbai, via a letter dated September 1, 2018, that payment may be made to small claimants with an outstanding amount between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.