Supreme Court calls for interim report on Golden Key settlement

By S.S. Selvanayagam

A panel of three judges of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice on Thursday (27) directed the three-member Committee of Chartered Accountants called Watawala Committee to submit a brief comprehensive interim report on the basis of re-payment scheme for the depositors of the Golden Key Credit Card Company.

The Bench comprised Chief Justice Shirani A. Bandaranayake and Justices N.G. Amaratunga and K. Sripavan.

The Court directed the Watawala Committee headed by Prof. R. Watawala to submit this report on or before 11 November.

Court noted that when the matter came up on 13 October, the Court had directed the Watawala Committee headed by Prof. Watawala to submit a brief comprehensive interim report on the basis of a re-payment scheme before 10 October.

Court also noted that Prof. Watawala and the committee members who were present in Court had, on that day, agreed to submit the said report and had informed Court that he would be submitting the said report to Deputy Solicitor General Viraj Dayarathne by 20 October 2011. Court observed that the said report had not been filed before 20 October.

 In the circumstances, the Deputy Solicitor General informed Court that as per the undertaking given by him on 18 October, he could not circulate the copies of the said report among the Counsels who are participating in this matter as the said report was not handed over to him.

Prof. Watawala who was present in Court on Thursday (27) informed Court that he needed further time to file the said report.

In the circumstances, considering the national importance of this matter, further time was granted by the Court on Thursday for Prof. Watawala to prepare the said report incorporating the following details:

(1) The number of depositors who had indicated the amounts they had deposited by 1 June 2009;

(2) The amounts the aforementioned depositors had deposited prior to 1 June 2009;

(3) The supporting evidence with regard to items number (1) and (2);

(4) Amounts that had been already re-paid to the depositors including the names of such depositors;

(5) In view of the Committee headed by Prof. Watawala, the amounts that would require in order to make a full repayment to the depositors;

(6) The number of assets including Companies that are being supervised by the Watawala Committee at present on a day to day basis and the proposals they have received by various parties in order to purchase the said Companies.The Court directed that the aforementioned report should be tendered to the Deputy Solicitor General on or before 11 November. The Deputy Solicitor General undertook to file one copy in the Registry of the Supreme Court and hand over three copies to the Judges who are participating in the matter.

The Deputy Solicitor also undertook to make arrangements for Counsels to obtain copies of the said report subject to the payments as usual charges.

 The Court made this order in order to assist the Court. Since Prof. Watawala will be out of the country and Counsel are of view that his presence would be necessary, the matter was re-fixed to be resumed before the Same Bench on 1 December.

Sixteen fundamental rights petitions of a group of depositors of the Golden Key Credit Card Company Ltd. have been filed before the Supreme Court.

The three-member Committee of Chartered Accountants had been appointed to examine the assets and liabilities of the Golden Key Credit Card Company Ltd. and to prepare a scheme of the refund of security deposits of cardholders.

The said Committee comprises Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, Nelson Nagasinghe and Mahedra Panditha and it functions in consultation with a director of the Central Bank.

The depositors of five troubled Ceylinco entities – Golden Key Credit Card Company Ltd., Ceylinco Finance and Guarantee (F&G), Ceylinco Investment and Realty (CIR), Ceylinco Profit Sharing Ltd. and Ceylinco Shriram – along with depositors who invested with Sakvithi make up nearly 700,000 depositors.

Petitioners cited the Monetary Board of the Central Bank, Minister of Finance, Secretary to the Ministry, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivaard Cabraal, Golden Key Credit Card Company, Deshamanya Dr. Lalith Kotelawala, Khavan Perera, Sicille Kotelawala, seven others and the Attorney General as Respondents.

M.A. Bastianz with Sudath Jayasundara instructed by K. Ganeshayogan appeared for the Petitioners.