Hutch-Essar holdings: Court notices to HTIL, Centre

Delhi High Court issued notices on Monday to the Centre, Hutchison Telecom India Ltd, Hutch-Essar and its minority shareholders among others on a petition alleging breach of foreign direct investment norms in telecom sector.

Telecom Watchdog, the petitioner, alleged that minority shareholders -- Asim Ghosh, Analjit Singh -- and another company who together hold 15.03 per cent stake were merely acting as a front for Hutchison.

Justices M K Sharma and Sanjeev Khanna issued notices to the parties on a petition by Telecom Watchdog, an NGO, seeking cancellation of HTIL's licence and confiscation of the shares held by the minority shareholders, including Ghosh and Singh.

The court gave six weeks time to all the respondents to file their replies and rejoinder thereafter, if any. The court also directed the petitioner to amend its petition in view of the clearance given by Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

• The race for Hutch-Essar

However, the petitioner's counsel Prashant Bhushan submitted that "it did not require to file an amended petition as FIPB had not taken care of any of his prayers made in the writ petition."

On March 8, the court had directed the Centre and FIPB to enquire into Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom's holding in Hutch-Essar, which the petitioner claimed was more than the permissible 74 per cent. The court had then given two months time to complete the probe, but refused to issue notice at that time.

The NGO, which had alleged that total foreign holding in the company was 89.03 per cent, also submitted a supplementary affidavit in the court pertaining to the $415 million that HTIL paid to Essar and said it suspected the money was paid for "managing smooth clearances from the government."