Satyam case: Consumer forum rejects plea on compensation

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on Monday refused to hear an investor body's petition seeking a compensation of Rs 4,987.5 crore (Rs 49.87 billion) for 300,00 retail shareholders of fraud-hit Satyam [ Get Quote ], saying it is not equipped to deal with such cases.

"We do not have the infrastructure to deal with such kind of petititon. . .CBI and CLB (are) already seized with the matter," observed a Bench of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission comprising Justice K S Gupta, presiding member and Rajyalakshmi Rao, member, while rejecting the Midas Touch Investors Association's petition.

Midas Touch, a consumer protection organisation, filed a petition before the Consumer Commission seeking compensation for the retail investors of Satyam who had suffered because of the accounting fraud perpetrated by the founder of the Hyderabad-based IT company, B Ramalinga Raju [ Images ] [ Images ], for years.

"We are exploring all options to see how this can be taken forward. It is disappointing and sends a wrong message to retail investors in India [ Images ] and globally," MTIA director Virendra Jain told reporters after the hearing, which lasted just five minutes.

The petition, which sought a compensation of Rs 4,987.5 crore for about three lakh retail investors of Satyam on the basis of a formula, was mentioned before the Commission by advocates Madhumita Bhattacharjee and Yeeshu Jain.