The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the validity of e-voting process for winding up of six mutual fund schemes of Franklin Templeton and said that the disbursal of funds to unit holders will continue, PTI reported. A bench of justices SA Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna, while rejecting the opposition by some unit holders to the e-voting process, said disbursal of funds has to be done as per the earlier order of the court.
The objections were raised after the Supreme Court allowed them on January 18, following a vote on closure of the schemes that was approved by the majority of investors in December.
Earlier this month, the top court had ordered that Rs 9,122 crore be disbursed within three weeks to the unit holders of the six mutual fund schemes which are proposed to be wound up.
Franklin Templeton had announced in April last year that it would close six of its debt schemes in India with immediate effect amid the severe market dislocation and crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The move was expected to lock in about Rs 30,800 crore of investors’ money.
The six high-risk, high-return credit funds were the Franklin India low duration fund, the Franklin India dynamic accrual fund, the Franklin India credit risk fund, the Franklin India short term income plan, the Franklin India ultra short bond fund and the Franklin India income opportunities fund.
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