Expense Account, Mint
It’s interesting how stories move forward. On 11 May the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission in New Delhi threw out a suit filed by Midas Touch Investors Association, an investor assocation registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), claiming damages on behalf of 300,000 consumers—shareholders of Satyam Computer Services Ltd —who, said the complaint, were defrauded by the software company. The court said it could not examine the case under the Consumer Protection Act and dismissed it. The suit is against the Raju brothers, auditors Price Waterhouse and the independent directors. The activist outfit has demanded Rs4,987.5 crore at the rate of Rs570 per share for 87.5 million shares on behalf of the shareholders. Last week the market regulator, Sebi, put its weight behind class action suits in general by contributing Rs14 crore to a fund that will reimburse any of its 25 registered investor associations to take on the big guys in a class action suit.
