RoC to issue notice to Reliance on Anil's charges
Thursday, May 19 2005 12:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time - 
New Delhi:
In the first direct intervention in the Reliance affairs, Government today (May 19, 2005) said it has asked Registrar of Companies (RoC) to issue notice to group, headed by Mukesh Ambani, on complaints filed by his younger brother Anil in the midst of battle between the two over ownership issues.
"We have asked RoC to give a notice to Reliance," company affairs secretary Komal Anand told reporters when asked about the action being taken by the Ministry on complaints filed by Anil.
She, however, did not elaborate on the details in the notice to be served by RoC, which is under administrative control of the Ministry, and what was the nature of complaints made by Anil.
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During the over seven month old public wrangling with Mukesh, the younger Ambani sibling has on many occassin raised the issues of corporate governance and absence of financial information and disclosures in the group of companies.
Late last month despite serving as Vice Chairman and Managing Director Anil had declined to sign the financial accounts of the group's flagship company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), headed by Mukesh, and had made public his dissent at the Board Meeting on April 27.
Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar organised by Competition Commission of India, Anand said a report on the issue is expected to be completed within a week.
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Anand's comments come within a week of Company Affairs Minister P C Gupta stating that Government was not sleeping over the issue and would take appropriate action.
Expressing concern over developments in Reliance group, Gupta had said on Monday (May 16, 2005), "Government has to do its job. We are concerned with all developments taking place. We have received complaints from Anil Ambani."
"We are not sleeping over the matter. We know what we have to do. We are getting feedback (on Reliance developments) from Registrar of Companies," Gupta had said.
Incidentally, market regulator Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had said yesterday (May 18, 2005) it would take appropriate action on complaints filed by Anil.
"We have received certain letters from the company's vice chairman and managing director (Anil Ambani). We are acting on those letters... We will do whatever is necessary," SEBI chairman M Damodaran had said, adding, "We know about those issues and we know how to address those issues. We have started looking at those issues."
PTI
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