Lilavati Trust Vs HDFC Bank CEO
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Ten Bombay High Court judges have recused themselves from hearing HDFC Bank CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan’s plea in the Lilavati Trust FIR case. Sources say all but three judges stepped aside due to past links with the Lilavati Trust.
Ten judges from the Bombay High Court have recused themselves from hearing a plea filed by HDFC Bank CEO and Managing Director Sashidhar Jagdishan, seeking to quash a First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him based on a complaint from the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust.
The Trust, which manages the well-known Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, alleges that Jagdishan accepted a bribe of Rs.2.05 crore in return for providing financial advice that would enable the Chetan Mehta Group to maintain illegal control over the Trust’s governance.
The Trust claims that Jagdishan misused his position as head of a major private bank to interfere in the internal matters of a charitable organization.
The case was initially presented to a Bench of Justices A.S. Gadkari and Rajesh Patil on June 18. However, Justice Patil recused himself from the proceedings. That same day, the matter was brought before a bench led by Justice Sarang Kotwal, who also recused himself.
In the subsequent days, the case was mentioned before several other benches. Justices Revati Mohite Dere, G.S. Kulkarni, Arif Doctor, B.P. Colabawalla, M.M. Sathaye, R.I. Chagla, and Sharmila Deshmukh all recused themselves from the case.
Later, the matter was scheduled for hearing before the Bench of Justices M.S. Sonak and Jitendra Jain on Thursday.
However, Justice Jain revealed that he held shares in HDFC Bank. Following an objection from Prashant Mehta, the Trust’s authorized representative, Justice Jain also recused himself.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Amit Desai, representing Jagdishan, strongly criticized the pattern of judges recusing themselves and accused the Trust of “forum shopping.”
He contended that merely holding shares in a publicly listed company should not automatically warrant recusal and that it is ultimately up to the judges to decide whether they should hear a case.
Expressing concern over the frequent recusals, Desai remarked ,
“The Collegium should introduce a new criterion for appointing judges in Bombay: select only those who haven’t worked with Lilavati.”
Following this, on May 31, an FIR was officially registered. The main part of the complaint is a diary that was found by Prashant Mehta. It reportedly has written records of Rs 2.05 crore in payments made to Sashidhar Jagdishan by Chetan Mehta and six other ex-trustees.
The Magistrate accepted that these records were not supported by extra documents, but still said that the allegations were very serious, so an investigation was needed.
Because of this, the Trust filed a new petition, saying that Sashidhar Jagdishan is a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act, so the CBI should investigate the matter, not the local police.
The FIR registered at Bandra Police Station was initiated following an order from a Bandra magistrate court under Section 175(3) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, prompted by an application submitted by the Trust through Mehta.
The FIR includes serious allegations under the Indian Penal Code, notably Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), and 420 (cheating).
HDFC Bank Managing Director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan on June 18 went to the Bombay High Court to request the cancellation of a police case (FIR) registered against him by the Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust, the owner of Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai.
Senior Advocate D.P. Singh and Advocates Himanshu Sinha, Sandip Singhi, Chitra Rentala, Gopalkrishna Shenoy, Ritesh Desai, Kriti Srivastava, Parikshith K, Khyati Mehrotra, and Shravani Maddirala, instructed by Trilegal, represented Jagdishan.
Advocates Niteen Pradhan, Shaheen Pradhan, Monish Bhatia, Rohan Dakshini, Pooja Kothari, Prakhar Parekh, and Raghav Dharmadhikari, instructed by Rashmikant & Partners, represented Mehta.
Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda, along with Advocates Kushal Mor, Monish Bhatia, Minal Chandanani, Maumik Shah, Mohd Asim, Jyoti Ghag, and Shailesh Prajapati, instructed by Dua Associates, represented the Trust.
Additional Public Prosecutor Mahalakshmi G appeared for the State.
