Chennai: The Madras high court has appointed senior advocate Ramesh as amicus curiae on a petition filed by an IT firm challenging a case registered against it under TNPID (Tamil Nadu Protection of Interest of Depositors) Act, 1997, and seeking to declare it as ultra vires and non est in law. Justice P.N. Prakash before whom the petition filed by Helios and Matheson Information Technology Ltd, Taramani, came up, also issued notice to special government pleader R. Sanjay Gandhi.
The deputy superintendent of police, economic offences wing-II, Anna Nagar, Chennai, registered a case against the company under section 420 of IPC (cheating) read with section 5 of the TNPID Act, 1997 for non-payment of amounts deposited by a few people. Aggrieved over this, the company filed the current writ petition stating that the police have no jurisdiction to investigate a matter involving an offence under TNPID Act, since the entire matter was pending before the Supreme Court.
In the petition, the company submitted that it is a 24-year-old company and registered with the New York Stock Exchange. It received summons from the police for violating the provisions of the TNPID Act.The company submitted that “It is not a financial establishment as mentioned under TNPID Act and not involved in the business of receiving deposits.” Over the last 10 years, more than '160 crore have been paid to about 10,000 depositors and the company has not faced any issue at all.
