The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on February 6 barred Mukesh Choksi from being appointed as an auditor of any company for a period of five years, holding him guilty of signing off on a company’s books without inspection and colluding with its promoters in a fraudulent manner.
This is the first time the NCLT has passed an order barring an auditor in such a fashion.
The NCLT passed the order in connection with a case by the Western Regional Director of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs against the auditor Mukesh Choksi, and the company he audited, Zen Shaving.
Zen Shaving is accused of issuing an IPO in 1996, proposing to list its shares on the Pune Stock Exchange but failing to do so, and siphoning off funds raised through the issue.
