Depositors of Imperial Bank Ltd (In Receivership) have now moved to court seeking to have the receiver manager compelled to pay them.
The depositors, through lawyer Mansur Issa, say the receiver manager has failed to exercise its statutory obligation under Section 50 of the Kenya Depositors Insurance Act to pay their deposits despite having been requested to do so.
They complain that they were only paid the initial Sh1 million and that the receiver manager ignored their requests in subsequent payouts.
Kaushik Natwarlal Thakkar, one of the applicants, is aggrieved after the receiver manager failed or refused to pay him the balance of Sh2,492,143.27 in addition to Sh81,686.40 wrongfully deducted during the first phase to settle an outstanding credit card bill for one Anool Jivraj Nathwani who was not a joint account holder.
He was only paid Sh1 million in the first phase and subsequent requests during the second phase, a reminder by lawyer Mansur Issa and another one when the receiver manager was paying out 10 per cent of deposits of verified depositors subject to a minimum of Sh200,000 have not been fruitful.
Nathwani is similarly seeking to be paid Sh4,174,796.14. He says the receiver manager alleges that he was a guarantor for an overdraft facility advanced to African Retail Trader (2005) Ltd where there is no deed of guarantee.
Atul R. Shah has been refused his deposits amounting to Sh15 million on similar grounds but he denies having guaranteed the overdraft facility.
Dune Packaging Ltd complains it continues to be charged exorbitant interest on an outstanding term loan of Sh4,937,932 and a hire purchase loan of Sh308,222.75 despite variously requesting the receiver manager to settle them from his fixed and current accounts at Imperial Bank Ltd (In Receivership).
Vista Management Consultants Ltd, on its part, says it had Sh3 million in its current and fixed accounts. It was only paid Sh1 million during the first phase that saw depositors with deposits not exceeding Sh1 million paid.
A second request made on August 10, 2016 during the second phase was refused and no reasons were given.
Another request through Issa & Company Advocates made on December 19, 2016 was similarly ignored.
Further after the Kenya Depositors Insurance Corporation announced plans to pay 10 per cent of current deposits of verified depositors subject to a minimum of Sh200,000, the receiver manager similarly failed or refused to pay 10 percent of Sh450,668.62 held in its fixed deposit accounts.
The applicant holds that this failure and/or refusal is “irrational, unreasonable and ultra vires” the applicant’s statutory obligation under section 46 and 50 of the Kenya Deposit Insurance Act and is seeking orders of mandamus to compel the receiver manager to pay.
“Unless the orders of mandamus sought are issued, the respondent will continue unabated in his blatant refusal to carry out his statutory duty fairly and without discrimination to make payment and refunds to the applicant as a depositor with Imperial Bank Limited (In Receivership,” Issa says in his application.
The applications were filed on March 1 for leave which was granted ex parte. The depositors now want the applications certified as urgent.
The court had ordered that the ex-parte applicant serve the respondents withing 21 days and the matter mentioned on April 3.
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