SURYA PARTAP SINGH, J. (Oral):

The present writ petition has been filed for a writ in the nature of certiorari & mandamus, and the following prayers have been sought:

(a) the summoning order dated 16.08.2021 passed by the learned Special Judge, Gurgaon, designated under Companies Act, in Criminal complaint No.17/2021 be set aside/quashed;

(b) A writ of mandamus for direction to the respondents to provide the copy of sanction order (order No.Legal 35/6/2020) dated 10.06.2021 passed by the respondent No.1;

(c) the writ of certiorari for quashing of above mentioned sanction order;

Briefly stating, the facts emerging from record are that a complaint, i.e. complaint No.17/202, has been filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office Vs. SRS Ltd. and Ors., hereinafter being referred to as ‘SFIO’ only. The above mentioned complaint has been filed in the Court of learned Special Judge (designated under the Companies Act 2013), Gurugram, hereinafter being referred to as ‘trial Court’, only. The above-mentioned complaint has been filed against the petitioner, and his co-accused, under Sections 439(2) read with Section 436(1)(a) and (d) read with proviso to Section 212(6) read with Section 212(14) of the Companies Act 2013, read with Section 621(1) of the Companies Act, 1956.

According to complaint the SFIO being a statutory body, constituted and established under Section 211 of Companies Act 2013, launched an investigation into the affairs of 88 Companies of SRS Group, which revealed that the affairs of above-mentioned companies were managed and controlled by seven persons namely ‘Anil Jindal’, ‘Jitender Kumar Garg’, ‘Praveen Kumar Kapoor’, ‘Bishan Bansal’, ‘Nanak Chand Tayal’, ‘Rajesh Singla’, and ‘Sushil Singla’. The investigation further revealed that the degree of control of the above-mentioned seven persons was such that Directors in the companies belonging to SRS Group were appointed or removed on their whims and fancies, and that five companies belonging to SRS Group namely ‘SRS Limited’, ‘SRS Modern Sales Limited’, ‘SRS Healthcare & Research Centre Limited’, ‘SRS Finance Limited’ and ‘SRS Real Estate Limited’ obtained loans to the tune of Rs.528 crores from public sector banks/financial institutions and the outstanding amount of the bank loans with respect to nine companies of SRS Groups, reached to the level 1596.94 crores. In the investigation, it was also revealed that the directors of the companies of SRS Groups had presented false financial statements, containing wrong details of debtors, inflated purchase and sales figures, and thus, obtained credit facilities on the basis of wrong facts projected before the banks/financial institutions.

The record further reveals that on the above-mentioned complaint filed by SFIO cognizance was taken by the learned trial Court, being Special Court, designated under the Companies Act, and in total 81 persons, including the petitioner, were summoned as accused. According to petitioner, vide order dated 16.08.2021, the petitioner was summoned to face trial for the commission of offence punishable under Sections 448 of Companies Act. The cognizance against the petitioner was taken by the learned Special Judge on the ground that he had signed the balance-sheets of the aforesaid company, and therefore, he is responsible for deceptive accounting/non-disclosure of facts and also on account of misleading financial statements and falsification of facts related to transactions with various entities.

In the instant petition, it has been pleaded by the petitioner that he is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a senior member of an audit firm namely ‘SS Kothari Mehta and Company’. As per complainant in 2010 the above mentioned firm was approached by ‘SRS Group’ for statutory audit for some of its group companies, i.e. SRS Limited & SRS Real Estate Limited. According to petitioner the request letters for the audit of above mentioned companies were issued on 01.06.2010 and 27.05.2011, respectively, and