The court established that provisional attachments under the Act must be confirmed within 60 days, as failure to do so results in the lapse of the attachment.

Dated this the 11th day of July, 2024 The petitioner, a depositor in an establishment name 'Chirayath Benefit Fund Nidhi Ltd' has approached this Court seeking the following reliefs;

“1.To issue a mandamus or any other appropriate order to the second respondent to consider and pass orders on Ext.P2 petition within a time frame fixed by this Honourable Court;

2.To issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate order or direction directing to second respondent to take appropriate steps under Sections 7, 16, 14 and 30 of the Banning Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 that attach the properties mentioned in the Schedule attached to Exhibit P2 petition.”

2.From the statement filed by the learned Government Pleader, it has come out that, as Annexure R(a) order dated 12.04.2023, all immovable properties and other deposits held by the Chirayath Benefit Fund Nidhi Ltd and the money or other property acquired either in the name of the deposit taker, or in the name of any other person on behalf of the deposit taker, were attached provisionally.

3.Learned Government Pleader submitted that, urgent steps have been taken by the District Collectors to attach all the movable/immovable properties in terms of the provisional attachment order. Annexure R(b) dated 26.06.2023 is one such order.

4.Learned Counsel for the petitioner contended that, after issuing the provisional attachment order, application for confirming the attachment was not made before the designated court, within the 60 days stipulated in the Banning Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act , 2019.

As there is no provision for extending the period of 60 days, the provisional attachment order would have lapsed.

5.Learned Government Pleader also admitted that the provisional attachment order cannot now be confirmed. To get over this issue fresh, proceedings have been initiated to issue a fresh provisional order. Once such an order is passed, confirmation of the same will be sought by the designated court within the stipulated time.

Recording the above submission, the writ petition is disposed of, directing the second respondent to issue fresh provisional order with respect to the properties of Chirayath Benefit Fund Nidhi Ltd and to take timely follow up action.