Pay Rs 9,000 crore to unit holders in 20 days, SC tells Franklin Templeton

NEW DELHI:  The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund to disburse Rs 9,122 crore within 20 days to the unitholders of its six mutual fund schemes slated for winding up. 

A bench comprising justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna entrusted SBI Mutual Fund the responsibility of disbursing the amount after all the counsel gave consent to the court’s order. 

The bench granted liberty to the litigating parties to approach the court in case of any difficulty in the disbursal of money to the unitholders.

The court also gave the parties liberty to move applications in case of any difficulty arising out of the process.

The bench on January 25 had said it would first deal with the issues related to objection to the e-voting process for winding up of the six mutual fund schemes and distribution of money to the unitholders.

Prior to this, the apex court had granted three days for filing of objections to the e-voting on winding up of six mutual fund schemes of the company. Earlier, the apex court had asked the SEBI to appoint an observer for overseeing the e-voting process.

The voting with regard to winding up Franklin Templeton’s six mutual fund schemes had taken place in the last week of December and it has been approved by the majority of unitholders.

Franklin Templeton MF closed these six debt mutual fund schemes on April 23, citing redemption pressure and lack of liquidity in the bond market.

Till November 27, 2020 the six schemes received total cash flows of Rs 11,576 crore since April 24 last year.