SC refuses to stay on Bombay HC order in Deloitte and BSR in IL&FS case

The Supreme Court today refused to stay the Bombay High Court order which in April earlier this year, directed quashing of prosecutions against BSR & Associates LLC, and Deloitte Haskins and Sells in the IL&FS scam.

New Delhi: Giving a big relief to Deloitte Haskins & Sells and BSR & Associates, both former auditors of IL&FS Financial Services Ltd, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday refused to stay the Bombay High Court (HC) order to quash all prosecution against the two firms pending before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and a special court in the city.

According to sources, both the companies were auditors of IL&FS which is accused of not paying off its debts amounting to around Rs 91,000 crores. The case was highlighted in 2018.

Deloitte was the auditor till 2018 and later on, BSR had taken over but resigned in June 2019. They are accused by the government's Serious Fraud Investigation Office(SFIO) of being involved in the IL&FS financial fraud case. SFIO accuses the auditors of concealing information regarding the financial position of IL&FS.

Reportedly, Bombay High Court had quashed the proceedings against the auditors considering that they had resigned. In response to this Ministry of Corporate Affairs(MCA) and SFIO had moved to the Supreme Court challenging the HC's order.

Following this, the top court said that the auditors shall remain on bail while the MCA can continue with its probe. The SC bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde also questioned the late appeal filed by MCA and said that they want to penalise the government for it, sources added.