sfio: HC dismisses Shradha Binani’s plea challenging SFIO summons

The Bombay High Court has dismissed the petition filed by Shradha Binani, daughter of the promter of Binani Industries Braj Bhushan Binani, against the ministry of corporate affairs and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).

Binani, in her petition, had challenged the summons issued by the federal investigation agency arguing the investigation was for a period between 2015 to 2017, which is beyond her tenure and the report in respect of suspect transactions of that period neither names nor implicates her.

“The petitioner is only issued with the summons. As yet, the SFIO has not submitted the report to the Central government. The courts would not generally interfere at the initial stage of the investigation,” said the division bench of justice SV Gangapurwala and justice RN Laddha in its order of November 14.

“The investigation is carried out to unearth the alleged irregularities into the affairs of the company. In such a scenario, we do not find it a fit case to invoke the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India,” the court further observed.