Two of the members, namely. S.Gopatakrishnan and Srinivas Talluri who were associated with the audit of Satyam Computer Services Limited had filed Writ Petitions separately before the Honorable High Court of Delhi and accordingly interim stay order was passed for stalling the proceedings of Disciplinary Committee in these matters.
Lately, the Honorable High Court of Delhi after hearing the counsels of both the sides has dismissed both the Petitions and passed the order, the substantive part of which is as under:
“The position in law would be no different as regards the Petitioners having to depose before the Disciplinary Committee in proceedings under the Chartered Accountants Act. Consequently, this Court is unable to accept the plea that by being asked to appear in the disciplinary proceedings under the Chartered Accountants Act the fundamental right of the Petitioners under Article 200} vis-a-vis the criminal trial would be violated, The contention that the Petitioners have no right of silence in the disciplinary proceedings and, therefore, their statements in those proceedings will amount to disclosure of their defence in the criminal trial is without merit in view of the fact that the very nature of the two proceedings is different as explained in the above decisions,
Conclusion- For all the aforementioned reasons, this Court finds no ground having been made out by the Petitioners for the grant of the relief’s as prayed for, The Writ Petitions are dismissed with costs of Rs. 10,000/- each which will be paid by the each of the Petitioners to the Respondent No 1 ICA1 within a period of four weeks. The interim orders stands vacated”.
