HC stays special audit at Contai Coop Bank

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court stayed the Bengal government’s decision to hold a special audit at the Contai Cooperative Bank of which Suvendu Adhikari is the chairman.
Justice Shampa Sarkar, while noting the powers of the state cooperation department to do any act to prevent “misuse, misappropriation of funds” in the interests of the depositors, ruled that the special audit was not required at the moment when the bank authorities were partly complying with the queries of the statutory audit authorities the state had appointed since 2016.
“It is seen prima facie that some audit compliances have been done and some have not. The audited balance sheets have been deposited with the Reserve Bank of India... However, as it appears that notices of non-compliance which are disputed by the petitioners, the court is inclined to allow the inspection,” Justice Sarkar observed.
The court allowed inspection on the basis of the audit requisitions as mentioned in the letters dated December 6, 2020, and June 3, 2021. “The special audit shall not be conducted without the leave of the court,” the judge ordered.