The Calcutta High Court on Monday refused to initiate a probe into the Metro Dairy share disinvestment, holding that the State’s process is transparent and does not call for interference.

The order follows a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, West Bengal Congress President alleging lack of transparency in State government’s sale of 47 per cent of its stake in Metro Dairy to private organisation Keventer Agro Ltd in 2017. In the same year, a Singapore-based private equity fund had invested in the shares of Keventer Agro.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj while orally dictating the order in open court opined that the policy decision of the West Bengal government to sell its 47 per cent stake in Metro Dairy to Keventer Agro in an auction for Rs 85 crores was “neither illegal nor arbitrary”.

The PIL was consequently dismissed.

Metro Dairy was established in 1991 as a public-private venture. After the exit of NDDB, the state-run West Bengal Milk Producers Federation had 47 per cent stake, and the remaining 53 percent was owned by Keventer Agro. Chowdhury had alleged in his petition that the government, which set up the company with public money had suffered a loss of at least ₹500 crore by selling its stake in Metro Dairy to Keventer Agro at a low price. Accordingly, he had contended that a probe must be initiated into the transaction.

According to Debanjan Mandal, Partner, Fox & Mandal, representing Keventer Agro, this vindicates the stand of Keventer Agro that the policy decision called for no interference, the valuation of shares of Metro Dairy was proper, the process followed by the government was completely transparent and fair and the price offered by Keventer Agro for purchase of the shares was also adequate.

“The petitioner had also asked for a CBI inquiry which has as a consequence of this dismissal been rejected. Keventer Agro believes that the petitioner was not informed of the proper facts of the case before commencing the PIL, and now hopes that the matter will come to a rest allowing the company to focus on meeting the competition in its business, its growth and creating wealth for the State and its stakeholders,” Mandal said in a statement.

Both the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation were made parties to the case and today’s judgment should bring about a closure of any further or other enquiry in this connection.

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