The notice, returnable in four weeks, was issued by Justice KP Sivasubramaniam on Monday.

On January 19 last, an extra-ordinary general meeting of BoM shareholders held at Madurai overwhelmingly voted in favour of the proposal to merge BoM with ICICI Bank. Of the 5,062 votes cast by shareholders, who were present and by proxy in keeping with statutory requirements, 5,051 votes were cast, endorsing a resolution for the amalgamation, while 11 had voted against it.

Claiming that the group in favour of the merger held less than 18.71 per cent stake in BoM, the petitioner said the group was trying to `oppress' small-time shareholders, who held over 60 per cent shares in the bank. The pro-merger group had also violated the Companies Act by sending threatening notes to shareholders, the association alleged.

The petitioner had also sought a direction to prevent the January 19 meeting on the ground that the pro-merger group will allegedly mislead innocent shareholders and announce the voting result in their favour.Submitting that a Share Swap Ratio (SSR) of 2:1 (two shares of ICICI for one share of BoM) had been proposed in the merger scheme, the association submitted that SSR will be detrimental to the interests of BoM shareholders.

The association claimed that an analysis it had conducted of the book value of shares showed that each share of BoM was valued at Rs 210.6, as against Rs 58.4 for a share of ICICI. The association was formed in December last by a section of the shareholders of the 57-year-old Tamil Nadu based bank to fight against the proposed merger.

(PTI)