The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has allowed the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to prosecute the auditors of IL&FS Financial Services (IFIN) — Deloitte Haskins and BSR Associates — based on the investigation report filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).
Other individuals allowed by the tribunal to be prosecuted include partners of audit firm Deloitte Udayan Sen, Kalpesh Mehta, and Sampath Ganesh, partner in BSR Associates. Surinder Singh Kohli and Subhalakshmi Panse, independent directors on the board of directors of IFIN, are also on the list. They were part of the audit committee of IFIN.
The tribunal in its order has observed that in the investigation by SFIO, no role of independent director has been specified. Therefore, prosecution of independent directors in the case is not justified, at this stage. But Kohli and Panse have been impleaded as they were part of the audit committee.
