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Tag: Sbi

  • Modi Ki Guarantee: BJP campaigning through ‘illegal money’, this is ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’: Kapil Sibal

    Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Saturday hit out at the BJP-led government over the electoral bonds issue, alleging the ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ is that the BJP does campaigning with “illegal money” raised through the scheme while the probe agencies “sleep”. Sibal, a senior advocate who is leading the arguments for the petitioners in a case in the Supreme Court against electoral bonds, claimed at a press conference here that 33 loss-making firms donated electoral bonds worth about Rs 581 crore with Rs 434 crore going to the BJP.

    He said the Supreme Court’s verdict on electoral bonds has made it clear that the money the BJP and other parties had was illegal.

    “If this money in the hands of the BJP is illegal, I want to ask the BJP did you get any Income Tax notice? I want to ask the Income Tax Department – did you send any notice to BJP? I want to ask the ED – did you conduct any raid?” Sibal said. “You have frozen the account of the Congress party, but you (BJP) got about Rs 6,655 crore, were your accounts frozen?” he added.

    Escalating his attack on the BJP, Sibal said, “You did not do it. Neither the IT department sent notice nor ED raids were carried out and the CBI also did not register an FIR.”

    “So on one hand the Congress’ accounts are frozen, but since the ED, CBI and IT department are yours (BJP’s), you don’t get any notice or face raids,” he added. The Congress leader claimed that 33 loss-making firms donated electoral bonds worth Rs 582 crore with 434 crore going to the BJP. The IT department knows it so there should be raids. The ED should have reached there and the CBI should have registered an FIR but nothing happened, he said.

    Sibal also claimed that Rs 2,717 crore was donated through electoral bonds by firms whose capital was lower than its donations.

    “The BJP is also safe, companies are also safe. The ED, IT department and CBI are sleeping and the BJP is doing campaigning with that money, this is ‘Modi ki Guarantee’,” Sibal said.

    “The guarantee is that no action will be taken as the ED, CBI and ED is theirs,” he added.

    Sibal also questioned RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and asked why is he silent on the issue.

    “I also want to ask (RSS chief) Mohan Bhagwat ji, you say that you are not in politics at all, you think about the country but since this decision on electoral bonds has come, Mohan Bhagwat ji did not say anything, he is also silent. He should say that the decision of Modi’s government was wrong,” he said.

    On February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordering disclosure by the Election Commission of the donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.

    Subsequently, the electoral bands has been made public.

    The SBI has said that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by donors between April 1, 2019, and February 15 this year, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by the political parties.

  • Delhi women’s commission issues notice to Indian Bank for terming pregnant women ‘unfit’ for joining

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission For Women has issued a notice to the Indian Bank seeking withdrawal of its new recruitment guidelines which prevents a woman, who is three or more months pregnant, from joining service.

    An immediate reaction regarding the move, which has invited criticism from various quarters, was not available from the public sector lender.

    Earlier in January, the country’s largest lender SBI had put in place new rules which said a woman candidate with more than three months pregnancy will be considered “temporarily unfit” and can join the bank within four months after delivery.

    After criticism from various quarters, the SBI suspended the revised guidelines on the recruitment of pregnant women.

    In its notice, the DCW said the alleged action of the Indian Bank is “discriminatory and illegal” as it is contrary to the Maternity Benefits provided under ‘The Code of Social Security, 2020′.

    “Further, it discriminates on the basis of sex which is against the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India,” the DCW said.

    According to the guidelines and criteria for physical fitness for pre-employment recently issued by Indian Bank, candidates would be re-examined six weeks after delivery for the appointment of the selected post.

    “A woman candidate, who as a result of tests, is found to be pregnant of 12 weeks’ standing or over, should be declared temporarily unfit until the confinement is over. The candidate should be re-examined for a fitness certificate six weeks after the date of labour, subject to the production of a medical certificate of fitness from a registered medical practitioner,” it said.

    In a statement, the DCW said it has also written a letter to the Reserve Bank of India on the issue.

    DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal said the panel has taken suo-moto cognizance of media reports on framing of new guidelines by the Indian Bank for recruitment of staff.

    According to the media reports, a recent circular issued by the bank prevents women who are more than three-months pregnant from joining service, despite having been selected through due process, it said.

    “The bank has framed rules which state that if a woman candidate is three months pregnant, then she would be considered ‘temporarily unfit’ and would not be given immediate joining upon her selection.

    This will lead to delay in their joining and subsequently they will lose their seniority,” it said.

    “The commission has issued notice to Indian Bank and has asked them to withdraw the newly issued anti-women guidelines and to provide complete details as to how the policy was framed along with its approving authority,” the DCW said.

    The bank has been asked by the panel to provide a detailed action taken report in the matter by June 23.

    Maliwal has also written a letter to the Governor of Reserve Bank of India.

    In her letter, Maliwal has stated that banks like SBI and Indian Bank have issued anti-women guidelines and need to be specifically discouraged from doing so.

    She has asked RBI Governor to intervene in the matter and issue directions to all banks in the country refraining them from making illegal and unconstitutional rules which discriminate against women.

    The Commission has also requested the RBI Governor to conduct an enquiry into the matter and fix the accountability of the bank officials who have issued the sexist guidelines.

  • Lookout circulars issued against ABG Shipyards directors in Rs 22,842 crore loan fraud case

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: A week after registering the case against ABG Shipyards Limited for banking fraud, the CBI on Tuesday issued the Look Out Circulars (LOCs) against the all accused, including the directors and other executives of the company.

    The firm was involved in a scam of approximately a Rs 22,842 crore loan given to it by 28 banks, including the complainant — the State Bank of India.

    The CBI has sounded alert to all airports and the other border crossing points along the international border so that no accused of this mega bank loan scam can escape from the country. The LOCs are issued by the law enforcement agencies to stop the accused of a cases from fleeing the country via airports and other points of border crossing.

    CBI spokesperson RC Joshi here on Tuesday told the media that the account of ABG Shipyard Limited, which was in business with the SBI since 2002, was declared NPA on November 30 in 2013.  “As per the bank complaint, the NPA of ABG shipyard Limited is to the tune of Rs 22,842 crore and the majority of disbursement of bank loan happened between 2005 and 2012 by a consortium of 28 banks, led by SBI and ICICI Bank,” Joshi said while sharing details of the bank loan scam.

    ALSO READ | Loans to ABG Shipyard turned NPAs prior to 2014: Finance Minister

    M/S NV Dand & Associate was deputed to conduct a stock audit of the ABG shipyards on September 10 in 2014, he added.

    “The audit report was submitted on March 30 in 2016 pointing out various discrepancies on the part of accused company. Subsequently, the account of ABH Shipyards Limited was declared NPA on July 30, 2016 with effect from November 30, 2013”, Joshi further said.

    The CBI spokesperson further said that various other banks also declared the accounts of ABH Shipyard ‘fraudulent’ and NPA between April 2019 and March 2020. “The bank loan forgeries by the company were found to have been committed between 2005 and 2012 during perusal of records and initial investigation after registering the case”, Joshi said.

    After registering the case against the company on February 7, 2022, the CBI had raided 13 premises of the accused firm on February 12 and recovered many incriminating documents, including the books of accounts of accused borrowers, company purchases, share registers, and various contracts papers. 

  • ABG Shipyard fraud: SBI says no delay in filing of case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Amid allegations of delay in filing of complaint against the country’s biggest bank fraud totaling Rs 22,842 crore, State Bank of India (SBI) on Sunday said it has been diligently following the ABG Shipyard fraud case with the CBI following the forensic audit report.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently booked ABG Shipyard Limited, its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of two dozen lenders led by ICICI Bank.

    ABG Shipyard fraud is much higher than the one perpetrated by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who allegedly cheated the Punjab National Bank (PNB) of around Rs 14,000 crore through issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs).

    Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala while addressing a press conference wondered as to why did it take five years after the liquidation proceedings of ABG Shipyard to lodge even an FIR for duping 28 banks of Rs 22,842 crore.

    “Why did the Modi government refuse to take note of the allegations made on February 15, 2018, by the Congress, warning of a scam in ABG Shipyard, and why no FIR was lodged and criminal action taken despite their accounts having been declared as fraud on June 19, 2019?” he asked.

    Responding to the allegation, SBI in a statement said a fraud is declared basis the forensic audit report findings that are discussed thoroughly in joint lenders meetings and when a fraud is declared, an initial complaint is preferred with the CBI and based on their enquiries further information is gathered.

    “In a few cases, when substantial additional information is gathered, a second complaint incorporating full and complete details is filed which forms basis for the FIR. At no point in time, there was any effort to delay the process. The lenders forum diligently follows through with CBI in all such cases,” it said.

    Surjewala said SBI wrote to the CBI in November 2018, “Saying there was a fraud committed by ABG Shipyard and seeking the registration of an FIR and criminal action. Despite this, nothing happened and the CBI pushed the files back to the SBI.”

    Sharing the timeline of events, the statement said the loan, given by a consortium of lenders led by ICICI Bank, turned NPA on November 30, 2013.

    Several efforts were made to revive the company operations but could not succeed, it said, adding the account was restructured under CDR mechanism in March 2014 by all lenders but it could not be recused.

    “As the restructuring failed, account classified as NPA (non-performing asset) in July 2016 with back dated effect from November 30, 2013. E&Y were appointed as forensic auditor by lenders during April 2018 and they submitted their report in January 2019. E&Y report was placed before the Fraud Identification Committee of 18 lenders in 2019. Fraud is mainly attributed to diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust,” it said.

    Although, ICICI Bank was the lead lender in the consortium and IDBI was the second lead, it was preferred that SBI being the largest public sector bank, lodges the complaint with CBI, it said.

    “The first complaint was filed with CBI in November 2019. There was continuous engagement between CBI and Banks and further information was getting exchanged,” it said.

    The circumstances of the fraud as well as CBI requirements were further deliberated in the various meetings of Joint Lenders and a fresh and comprehensive second complaint was filed in December 2020, it said. The account is presently undergoing liquidation under a NCLT-driven process.

    The Forensic Audit has shown that between 2012-17, the accused colluded together and committed illegal activities including diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.

  • DCW issues notice to SBI, seeks withdrawal of employment guidelines for pregnant women

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Saturday issued a notice to SBI seeking withdrawal of its new rules wherein a woman who is over three months pregnant will be considered “temporarily unfit” and she may be allowed to join within four months after delivery.

    State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, could not immediately be reached for comment.

    “State Bank of India seems to have issued guidelines preventing women who are over 3 months pregnant from joining service & have termed them as ‘temporarily unfit’. This is both discriminatory and illegal. We have issued a Notice to them seeking withdrawal of this anti women rule,” DCW Chief Swati Maliwal tweeted.

    In the notice, the panel sought a copy of the new guidelines as well as a copy of the similar rules operational before this. It has also sought an action taken report in the matter.

    The bank’s move has elicited criticism from some quarters, including from the All India State Bank of India Employees’ Association.

    In its latest medical fitness guidelines for new recruits or promotees, the bank said a candidate would be considered fit in case of pregnancy which is less than 3 months.

    “However, if pregnancy is of more than three months, she will be considered temporarily unfit and she may be allowed to join within four months after delivery of child,” as per the medical fitness and ophthalmological standards for new recruits and promotees dated December 31, 2021.

    Earlier, women candidates with up to six months of pregnancy were allowed to join the bank subject to various conditions.

    The conditions include furnishing a certificate from a specialist gynaecologist that her taking up bank’s employment at that stage is in no way likely to interfere with her pregnancy or the normal development of the foetus, or is not likely to cause her miscarriage or otherwise to adversely affect her health.

  • SC refers to other bench pleas of banks against disclosure of information under RTI

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday referred to another bench the clutch of petitions of banks including SBI and HDFC Bank Ltd against directions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asking them to provide crucial information such as confidential annual reports and list of defaulters to applicants under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

    A bench comprising Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari considered the fact that a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao had earlier dealt with the pleas of banks seeking recall of a 2015 judgment in the Jayantilal N Mistry case by which it was held that the financial institutions will have to disclose information under the transparency law.

    On April 28, a bench of Justices Rao and Vineet Saran had refused to recall the judgement as sought by some banks, saying that under the law and the apex court rules the pleas seeking recall were not maintainable.

    It, however, had permitted the banks to pursue other remedy before apex court against the verdict and the RBI’s directions to them and the pleas have been listed before the bench headed by Justice Nazeer which took the decision to refer to the bench which had dealt with it earlier.

    Earlier, banks had said that they were neither parties nor heard in a case which led to the 2015 judgement holding that the RBI would have to provide information such as confidential annual reports and list of defaulters under the transparency law.

    The Centre, State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Canara Bank (CB), Union Bank of India (UBI) and HDFC Bank Ltd have moved the top court assailing the 2015 verdict in the Jayantilal N Mistry case and the consequential directions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asking them to provide crucial information to applicants under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

    The bench headed by Justice Nazeer had said it would first decide whether the pleas of the banks and the Centre should be dealt by a bench headed by Justice Rao.

    “In all fairness the case should go to a bench headed by Justice Rao,” Justice Nazeer had said.

    Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for SBI, said he has no problem which bench hears the case, but the matter needed to be heard by a three-judge bench as “the issue of statutory embargo (under RTI) on holding back the confidential information was not adverted to in the judgement”.

    While dismissing the pleas of banks for recall of the 2015 verdict, a bench headed by Jusitce Rao had then made it clear that it was not dealing with any of the submissions of the banks on the correctness of the judgment.

    “The dismissal of these applications shall not prevent the applicants (banks) to pursue other remedies available to them in law,” it had said.

    “Banks were not parties to the case in which the judgement came,” senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for HDFC Bank, had said, adding that how can a private bank be asked to divulge its confidential banking secrets and details of its customers to a “fourth party”.

    The RBI had taken the ground that it has fiduciary relationship with the banks and hence cannot part with the information to applicants under the RTI, Rohatgi had said, adding that many more grounds are available to the banks and they could not be taken up then as they were not parties to the litigation.

    The submission was opposed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the RTI activist, saying the Indian Banks’ Association, to which all the banks are members and the ICICI were parties to the plea.

    The solicitor general had said that the matter needed hearing by a three-judge bench and a holistic judicial view of the entire issue was needed as banks were not party to the 2015 judgement.

    Banks are aggrieved by the RBI notices to them under Section 11(1) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act asking them to part with information pertaining to their inspection reports and risk assessment.

    The RTI Act empowers the RBI’s CPIO to seek information from banks.

    On April 28, the top court had, on legal grounds, refused to recall its 2015 judgment in the Jayantilal N Mistry case, which had held that the RBI will have to provide information about banks and financial institutions (FIs) regulated by it under the transparency law.

    Several FIs and banks, including CB, Bank of Baroda, UCO Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank had filed applications in the top court seeking the recall of the 2015 judgment, saying the verdict had far-reaching consequences and they were directly and substantially affected by it.

    The banks had contended that the pleas for a recall of the judgment, instead of a review, is “maintainable” as there was a violation of the principles of natural justice in view of the fact that they were neither parties to the matter nor heard.

    “A close scrutiny of the applications for a recall makes it clear that in substance, the applicants are seeking a review of the judgment in Jayantilal N Mistry. Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that these applications are not maintainable,” the apex court had held.

    While dismissing the pleas, the bench, however, had made it clear that it was not dealing with any of the submissions made by the banks on the correctness of the 2015 judgment.

    Now, the apex court is seized by several pleas of banks against the RBI’s direction to disclose information under RTI.

  • MP HC orders SBI to pay Rs 2 lakh to woman for inhuman approach in case of appointment on compassionate grounds

    By PTI
    INDORE: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has criticised State Bank India (SBI) officials for adopting an “inhuman approach” while dealing with a case of appointment on compassionate grounds, and directed the bank to pay Rs 2 lakh to a woman petitioner.

    The order was issued by the single bench of Justice Vivek Rusia on Monday while admitting a writ petition filed by Meena Dhaigude against a general manager and chief manager (personnel administration) of SBI in 2012.

    “In my considered opinion it is a fit case in which exemplary cost should be imposed on the respondents for their inhuman approach. The way the respondents have dealt with the issue of the widow and children of a Class IV employee, it is liable to denounce with the strong words deprecated,” Justice Rusia stated in the order.

    Expressing anguish over the bank management’s style of working, the court noted that the petitioner had to work as a domestic help for the survival of her sons and herself.

    The court also ordered the bank to consider the woman’s application for appointment on compassionate grounds.

    The petitioner’s lawyer Anand Agrawal said the woman’s husband Ashok Dhaigude was working in the then State Bank of Indore (which was later merged with the State Bank of India) as a peon.

    Dhaigude left for work from his home on December 19, 1998 and disappeared, he said, adding that even after lodging a police complaint when Dhaigude remained missing for the next seven years, his wife applied for appointment on compassionate grounds.

    However, the bank management did not consider her plea for years, and Dhaigude was considered dead by the bank on October 21, 2005, Agrawal said.

  • Banks consortium gets over Rs 792 crore in Vijay Mallya loan default case: ED

    Last month too, the banks consortium had realised more than Rs 7,181 crore in the Mallya case after a similar sale of attached shares.

  • HC asks SBI to maintain status quo on accounts of RCom, Reliance Telecom, Infratel

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked SBI to maintain status quo with regard to accounts of Anil Ambani’s firms — RCom, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel, which have been declared by the bank as fraud accounts.

    Justice Prateek Jalan passed the order on a plea by erstwhile directors of the three companies challenging a 2016 circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding declaration of accounts as fraud by banks.

    According to the plea, the circular allows banks to declare an account as fraud without giving any prior notice or communication to the account holder against the principles of natural justice.

    Their lawyers told the court that several similar petitions against the circular have been filed since 2019 and the petitioners in those matters have been protected by the high court.

    In view of the orders passed earlier by the high court in similar matters, Justice Jalan directed State Bank of India to “maintain status quo till next date of hearing” with regard to the accounts of the three companies.

    The court further said that the respondents, including RBI and the three companies, were at liberty to file their replies to the petition by January 11 and listed the matter for hearing on January 13.

    The court further said that SBI and RBI were at liberty to take any steps in the nature of an investigation or filing of complaint proceedings against the erstwhile directors and the three companies independent of the impugned action of declaring the accounts of the three companies as fraud accounts.

     

  • Editorial: – Know, why Dena Bank, Vijaya Bank and Bank of Baroda Merged ?

    Taking lessons from the bank scandal on the calls of the namdass during the UPA regime, the NDA government now looks for banking reform.

    It is notable that in the same way Indira Gandhi made important decisions for the nationalization of banks during her prime ministership. She nationalized 14 private banks on July 19, 1969. These banks were mostly occupied by large industrial houses. After this, the second round of nationalization took place in 1980, under which seven more banks were nationalized.

    >> According to Arun Jaitley, the government had declared in the budget that the merger of banks is its main agenda and the first step has been taken in this direction. Talking about the weakening of the country’s banking system, the Finance Minister said that due to non-payment of new loans, the investment in the corporate sector was adversely affecting. Arun Jaitley said that this merger will strengthen the bank and the ability to lend them will increase.

    >> The Finance Minister assured that the merger of these three banks is not bad news for any of these employees. “Any employee will not face any adverse situation,” he said. Earlier, the central government had merged the State Bank of India and its five associate banks last year.

    >> Arun Jaitley further said that due to the huge lending and huge gains in the stranded debt (NPA), the condition of the banks is poor. In the financial year 2017-18, the figure of NPA has been more than Rs 10 lakh crore. According to the finance minister, how bad the situation is, it can be traced only in 2015. He attributed this to the previous UPA government and said that he kept the eyes on NPA issue.

    Mergers like SBI will not have any adverse effect on existing service conditions of the employees of the three banks. The government has a majority stake in 21 banks. These banks have more than two-thirds of the bank’s assets in Asia’s third largest economy.

    However, along with these public banks, there is a large stake in trapped debt. The area is affected due to this immersed debt and millions of rupees are required in the next two years to comply with global Basel-III capital regulations.

    Smriti Irani had said a few days ago that Sonia’s leadership had done bad things to the banks.

    It is worth noting that PM Modi also said this during a program organized here on the occasion of the inauguration of the payment bank of the Postal Department a few days ago. He said that until four to five years ago, most of the capital of the banks was reserved for close relatives of only one family. PM Modi said that since 2008, a total of 18 lakh crore rupees had been given for the year 2008, but in the next six years, this figure has reached Rs 52 lakh crore.

    PM Modi asked for someone’s name, “Loan on call calls made by Namdhars were given. He said that on the anniversary of the nominees, the banks lend millions of rupees to the traders keeping the rules in mind. ”

    PM Modi had said that it was well aware that debt will not be made, banks have given loans to some people on the order of a family. When the borrowers were unable to pay the debt, the banks were pressured to reorganize that loan. They accused the previous UPA government of concealing information related to non-executed assets (NPAs).

    PM Modi said that after coming to power in the NDA government in 2014, he analyzed the situation in a big way and asked banks to strictly recover the outstanding loans.

    It is true that the Congress has laid landmines in the way of the economy. Our government presented the correct picture of NPA and the previous government scandal was brought to the fore. During the last four years, all the loans have been reviewed more than Rs. 50 crores and the rules have been asked to ensure strict compliance.

    ’12 lacs of Rs. 1.75 crores on 12 major debt defaulters. The other 27 defaulters have owed one lakh crore rupees. We have never given any loan to one of these 12 big defaulters.