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Nov 10, 20234 min read

Urging for the Hastened Resolution of the Cases Related to the DHFL: a Letter to the Hon’ble C

Posted on 10/11/2023 (GMT 09:02 hrs)

To

The Honourable Chief Justice of India,

Supreme Court of India

Tilak Marg, New Delhi – 110001

Sub: Urging for the Hastened Resolution of the Cases related to the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL)

Dear Sir,

First of all, I am much obliged to you for playing a pioneering role, akin to more of a Herculean task, to resolve the issue of multiple pending cases in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, which has now achieved the state of equilibrium (the arrears as on October 2023 is 70,754). I also cannot help but to cite in this context your recent (03/11/2023) pertinent remark⤡ on the Hon’ble Supreme Court not becoming a “tareekh pe tareekh” Court by taking cue from a pop movie, “Damini” (1993). Moreover, you have done a commendable job by introducing hybrid mode⤡ (utilization of internet platform at the age of cyber explosion) in the realm of judiciary along with your commitment to put into oblivion all gendered stereotypes⤡.

Although at present, I am a little bit hesitant to approach you for talking about my specific points of concern to be raised in the course of this letter, since you already are way too burdened with a large corpus of significant judicial matters.

It is to bring to your kind attention that there are many cases pending in your esteemed court regarding the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (Henceforth DHFL). The relevant details of the respective cases are given as follows:

1. 5046/2022; C.A. No. 001632 – 001634 / 2022 Registered on 25-02-2022

2. 6037/2022

3. 6027/2022; C.A. No. 001707 – 001712 / 2022 Registered on 28-02-2022

4. 7107/2022; C.A. No. 002396 – / 2022 Registered on 24-03-2022

5. 7109/2022; C.A. No. 002402 – / 2022 Registered on 24-03-2022

6. 7459/2022; C.A. No. 002413 – 002415 / 2022 Registered on 25-03-2022

7. 8502/2022; C.A. No. 002567 – / 2022 Registered on 29-03-2022

8. 8756/2022; C.A. No. 002987 – 002988 / 2022 Registered on 19-04-2022

9. 6667/2022; C.A. No. 002989 – 002991 / 2022 Registered on 19-04-2022

10. 11686/2022; C.A. No. 003694 – 003695 / 2022 Registered on 07-05-2022

11. 16955/2022; C.A. No. 006286 – / 2022 Registered on 07-09-2022

12. 003694 – 003695 / 2022 Registered on 07-05-2022

I, on the behalf of all the Fixed Deposit (FD) Holders and Non-Convertible Debenture (NCD) Holders of the DHFL (usual disclaimers apply) and as a retired pension holder with multiple medical conditions (along with my spouse, who is also an FD Holder, and is a patient of Type-2 Diabetes), am earnestly requesting you to take appropriate actions in this very regard at the earliest possible manner. Most of the FD and NCD Holders of the DHFL are retired persons, senior citizens, physically challenged persons and ailing widows/widowers. Their lifetime savings are totally at stake at present due to the lengthy judicial process involving a hierarchy of operations, which is causing in them a plethora of psychosomatic sufferings including (and not restricted to) anxiety disorders, proneness to suicidal thoughts, insomnia, chronic depression, stress disorders etc. Apart from that, the future sustenance of all the FD and NCD Holders of DHFL seem to be bleak owing to these very grave circumstances, as they are not able to meet their educational, residential and other basic means of subsistence effectively. According to my perception, the entire scenario is nothing but a state of financial abuse as defined in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011)⤡, contributing to the infringement of business-related human rights safeguarded by the United Nations itself. It appears to me (kindly pardon my possible ignorance) that the entire rigmarole around the DHFL matter is but a means to legitimize the ill-conceived Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC, 2016; amended multiple times) by reducing the small depositors of the DHFL into the laboratory state of the experimental gaze as “guinea pigs”⤡. The DHFL victims are within a trial of a different kind of “capital” punishment without knowing their crimes (Just like Joseph K in Kafka’s The Trial). Being so, the DHFL case becomes a simulated, manufactured event to mercilessly marginalize⤡ the DHFL victims within the fabric of the chaotic order of crony capitalism⤡. It is to be noted that some of the DHFL victims including myself had previously approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), but the petition was refused by stating that this type of case on financial abuse does not come under the purview of the NHRC and is merely a matter corresponding to “property rights” and “contractual obligations”. 

I, along with the other victims of this matter, have already approached you through an online mass petition⤡ (15/05/2023) on the Change.Org platform, appealing for suo moto cognizance in this case.

Thus, I will be wholeheartedly obliged to you if you kindly pursue the concerns of FD Holders and NCD Holders of the DHFL as stated in the above account by taking up immediate hearings for the aforementioned pending cases and provide relief (along with compensation) to the thousands of innocent victims so that they can rightfully claim their justice that is remaining due for four long years, keeping in mind the dictum: justice delayed is justice denied⤡.

Thanking you in anticipation,

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay

COPY TO:

1. THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

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