BharatPe has sued Centrum Financial Services Limited and JBCG Advisory Services Private Limited over the alleged unauthorised transfer and encumbrance of warrants issued by Unity Small Finance Bank. [Resilient Innovations Vs JBCG].The petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 by BharatPe's parent company, Resilient Innovations Private Limited.BharatPe has sought interim orders restraining JBCG and Centrum from transferring, marketing or creating any encumbrance over Series 1 and Series 2 warrants of Unity Bank without its prior written consent. It has also sought to restrain Unity Bank from registering or giving effect to any such transaction..Justice Tushar Rao Gedela issued a notice in the matter on September 9. The respondents were granted two weeks to file their replies, while BharatPe was given three days thereafter to file a rejoinder. The matter will next be considered on October 1..The dispute concerns 190 crore warrants allotted to Centrum in November 2021. BharatPe holds 49 per cent in Unity Bank, while Centrum holds 51 per cent. BharatPe says it infused around ₹746 crore towards the repayment of depositors of the erstwhile Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank.BharatPe has alleged that JBCG transferred around 6.74 crore Series 1 warrants and 4 crore Series 2 warrants, while JBCG and Centrum created encumbrances over 15 crore Series 1 warrants and about 16.92 crore Series 2 warrants, all without its prior written consent.One transaction cited in the petition concerns JBCG's alleged pledge of 8 crore Series 2 warrants to Vistra ITCL (India) Limited, as trustee for UTI Alternatives. BharatPe claims JBCG raised ₹200 crore against the warrants and later transferred 4 crore of them to UTI Alternatives schemes..The petition also highlights the price at which the warrants allegedly changed hands. Centrum subscribed to them at Re 0.01 each and later transferred 50 crore warrants to JBCG at Re 0.16 each. BharatPe has said it “reasonably believes” that JBCG subsequently offered those warrants onward at around ₹26 each.BharatPe invoked arbitration on August 11 and nominated former Supreme Court judge Justice Vineet Saran as its nominee arbitrator.The dispute follows an earlier Section 9 petition in which the Delhi High Court restrained the respondents from proceeding with a proposal concerning the conversion of the Series 1 warrants..BharatPe was represented by Advocates Mohit Goel, Sidhant Goel, Anuj B, Deepankar Mishra, Aisha Jain, Shashwat Mukherjee, Ishaan Pratap Singh, Suradish Vats and Darpan Sachdeva from Sim & San. .JBCG was represented by Senior Advocate Rajshekhar Rao with Advocates Ashish Aggarwal and Nalin Dhingra. .Centrum was represented by Advocates Ajay Monga and Amol Sharma, while Unity Bank was represented by Advocates Sanjay Gupta, Ateev Mathur and Jagriti Ahuja..[Read Order]
