SC upholds validity of e-voting for winding up of 6 Franklin Templeton mutual fund schemes

The apex court had on 2 February ordered that Rs 9,122 crore be disbursed within 3 weeks to the unit holders of the schemes, in proportion to the holders' interest in the assets.

A motorcylist passes in front of the Franklin Templeton Investments building in Hyderabad, India, on 29 September 2010 | Photographer: Adeel Halim/Bloomberg

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the validity of e-voting process for winding up of six mutual fund schemes of Franklin Templeton, and said disbursal of funds to unit holders will continue.

A bench of justices S A Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, while rejecting the opposition by some unit holders to the e-voting process, said disbursal of funds has to be done as per the earlier order of the apex court.

The top court had on February 2 ordered that Rs 9,122 crore be disbursed within three weeks to the unit holders of Franklin Templeton’s six mutual fund schemes which are proposed to be wound up.

It had said that disbursal of money would be done in proportion to unit holders’ interest in the assets.

Earlier, the apex court had asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (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 a majority of unit holders.