‘Wilful defaulter’ tag of tax lawyer to go, bank tells HC

Mumbai: Canara Bank told the Bombay High Court that it has not initiated proceedings against tax lawyer Anil Harish for declaring him a wilful defaulter. It will write to different authorities to remove his name either as a wilful defaulter or as a director of a company whose account was declared a non-performing asset."Those authorities shall act on the basis of that communication within a period of one week of receiving the same," Justices Burgess Colabawalla and Somasekhar Sundaresan directed on Wednesday. They requested the bank "to also enclose a copy of this order to those authorities."Harish moved HC challenging his inclusion in Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited's list of wilful defaulters. His petition said he was not a promoter-director of Valecha Engineering Ltd but only an independent non-executive director from 1993 to Sept 2014. Harish resigned on Sept 30, 2014, and the company's account was declared an NPA for the first time only on Jan 30, 2016, "one and a half years after his resignation." On Nov 3, HC directed a stay and restrained the bank from taking further steps.The bank's advocate, Rishabh Shah, said considering Harish resigned "as far back as on September 30, 2014, it does not propose to take any further action." He further confirmed that even in the suit filed by the erstwhile Syndicate Bank Ltd (merged with Canara Bank) against the company and its director, "the petitioner (Harish) is not a party to the said suit." The judges accepted the statement made on behalf of the bank "as an undertaking given to the Court" and disposed of the petition.
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