The Karnataka High Court has directed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to inform the court by December 9 whether the restriction on withdrawal of deposits could be relaxed by allowing higher withdrawals by the depositors of Amanath Cooperative Bank (ACB).
Justice A.S. Bopanna issued the direction during the hearing of a batch of petitions on various issues related to the bank.
After bank’s non-performing assets reached an alarming level, the RBI early this year had restrained the depositors/account holders from withdrawing more than Rs. 1,000 within a period of six months.
The court also asked the counsel for the former Union Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief and others whether they are prepared to deposit Rs. 430 crore to show their bonafides in their claim to pump funds into the bank to improve its financial status.
Mr. Sharief and a few others, in their petition, had sought the court’s direction to allow the petitioners, shareholders, customers and depositors to pump in the required funds to bring the bank back to its normal financial status.
They had also questioned the resolution made by the board of directors of the bank for merger of Amanath Cooperative Bank (ACB) with the Canara Bank while seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the affairs of ACB.
