Justice K.P. Sivasubramanian, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, has been appointed administrator by the Madras High Court to settle dues of the now defunct Pondicherry Nidhi Limited (PNL) to depositors in Puducherry and Cuddalore.
As per the direction of the Madras High Court, PNL depositors met here on Saturday.
Around 1000 people turned up and were given copies of the judgment of the Madras High Court under which the PNL has agreed to settle 75 per cent of the deposits collected by it.
A few months ago, a memorandum of understanding was reached between the Pondicherry Non-Banking Investors’ Protection Association and the PNL, under which the latter had agreed to a one-time settlement of 75 per cent of the deposit amount (without interest) collected by it.
The PNL had defaulted in repayment of deposit amount and interest to more than 13,000 depositors since 2004. The agreement had been reached after many rounds of discussion, including those with depositors of Cuddalore and Neyveli branches, said Mr. Gandhiraj, former Puducherry Minister and president of Pondicherry Non-Banking Investors’ Protection Association.
Around 370 depositors from Cuddalore also attended the meeting on Saturday, said Mr. Gandhiraj.
Later in the evening, another meeting was held in Chennai by Justice Sivasubramanian, attended by Mr. Gandhiraj, Y. Satheesh of the investors association and counsels of the PNL and the investors association. A list of depositors who had agreed to the MoU was given to Justice Sivasubramanian.
Within a week, the PNL is expected to deposit Rs. 7 crore which will be distributed by Justice Sivasubramanian to those who made deposits of amounts up to Rs. 50,000. Another Rs. 29 crore will be settled within 60 days, said Mr. Gandhiraj.
The firm has also accepted to return the gold which has been pledged with them by depositors and return deposits in cases where PNL’s cheques bounced.
The Puducherry government had enacted the Pondicherry Protection of Interests of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act 2004. The management was charged with offences under various sections of this Act.
