Chennai, May 13 (PTI) The Madras High Court has directed the Managing Director of Repco Bank and an IAS officer to appear before it on June 17 in connection with a contempt of court case filed against them.

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Justice G Jayachandran issued the direction last week (May 5) while allowing a sub-application seeking to re-open a contempt application, closed in 2021.

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R S Isabella, MD of Repco Bank and Vivek Agarwal, Joint Secretary (Co-op), Central Registrar of Co-operative Societies) are required to appear before the court on June 17.

"This court is prima facie satisfied that there is a deliberate and wilful disobedience of the order passed by this court. Wanton violation of the statutory provision in the bye-law amended," and hence the order to issue statutory notice to Vivek Agarwal and Isabella, the judge said.

Originally, P Thanapal, an Indian citizen repatriated from Sri Lanka, had filed a contempt application in 2021 alleging that even after lapse of more than a year, an order passed by the court in 2020 had not been complied with by the authorities and the said non-compliance was intentional. No attempt had been made to amend the bye-laws of Repco Bank in tune with the provisions of the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002, despite specific direction given by this Court, he contended.

In the said contempt petition, the duo filed counter listing the steps taken to amend the bye-laws and the reason for the delay. They also informed the court that the amendment to the bye-laws in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs. Further, the Bank gave an assurance that as per the amended bye-laws, the process of electing the Board of Directors would be completed within 6 to 8 months. And, recording the same, the contempt petition was closed in June, 2021.

The present sub-application was filed by Thanapal to re-open the contempt petition on the ground that the duo had suppressed certain documents and got the contempt application closed. The draft amendments were not approved.

Without the approval, bye-law 30 and 39 were amended in violation of Section 41 and Section 48 of the Act, he contended.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)