KAMPALA, UGANDA: Earlier this month, Supreme Court Chief Justice Prof. Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza gave a 'major' judgement that plainly stated that the Bank of Uganda's continued delay in compensating Uganda's business magnet Dr Sudhir Ruparelia will cost innocent taxpayers billions more.

In Justice Tibatemwa's judgement, it was explicitly stated that because BoU was vanquished by Sudhir in a multi-billion Crane Bank fraud with fees on February 11th, 2022 (date for initiation of payments due to Sudhir Ruparelia), any delays incur further penalties for Bank of Uganda.

The judgement resulted from the failure of the two parties involved in the scandal [Crane Bank and Meera Investments-Sudhir Ruparelia] to reach an agreement on the content of the instructions of the decree resulting from Civil Appeal No.07 of 2021.

You might be interested in learning more about this situation. On August 1, 2020, Crane Bank (in receivership) filed an appeal in this Court. Before the appeal could be considered, the Appellant withdrew it on September 15, 2020, which the Respondents opposed to and requested that the appeal be dismissed with costs under Rule 90 (4) of the Supreme Court Rules.

Following a court hearing, the Court ordered on February 11, 2022, that the appeal be rejected with costs to the Respondents in the conditions determined by the lower courts. Furthermore, the dismissal took effect on the 11th of February 2022, the day of the Court's ruling's endorsement.

The victorious parties in the application created a draught decree of the orders and submitted it to the Appellant for approval. The edict was written as follows:

1. The appeal is dismissed with costs as determined by the Court of Appeal. Bank of Uganda will bear the fees.

 2. The dismissal of the Appeal shall be effective as of the date of this judgement, which is February 11, 2022.

 3. The Appellant's receivership expired on January 20, 2018, and its administration reverted to the shareholders.

The Appellant agreed with the first two orders but objected to the third order and redrafted the decree to state that the rejection of the Appeal would take effect on the 11th of February 2022, the date of endorsement of this judgement.

Both sides agreed, however, that the Appellant's receivership terminated on January 20, 2018, and that management belonged to the shareholders. In other words, the appellant did not challenge the decision terminating the receivership on January 20, 2018.

Now, in her judgement, Chief Justice Tibatemwa decided in favour of Meera Investments Limited and Sudhir Ruparelia on July 1, 2022.

Sudhir and Meera Investments Limited were sued by BoU/Crane Bank in Receivership for allegedly defrauding Crane Bank Limited (CBL) of Shs397 billion, which the Central Bank sought repaid.

The Case's Complete History

On June 30, 2017, Crane Bank Limited (in Receivership) sued Mr. Sudhir Ruparelia and his Meera Investments Ltd. for inflicting UGX 397 billion in financial damage to Crane Bank through fraudulent transactions and property title transfers.

Crane Bank (in receivership) asked the High Court in Civil Suit No. 493 of 2017 to order Mr. Ruparelia to repay US$80,000,000, US$9,270,172.00, US$3.560,000.00, US$990,000.00, and UGX 52,083,995.00 as compensation for breach of fiduciary responsibility.

While Hon. Justice Wangutusi dismissed the UGX397 billion case against Mr. Ruperalia on a technicality, alleging that Crane Bank (in Receivership) lost its powers to “sue” and to “be sued”, thus rendering its suit a nullity, Crane Bank (in Receivership) maintaining that receivership is a management situation, and hence no legal change as to the capacity of a company to sue and be sued.