The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) today said it has not withdrawn disciplinary proceedings against auditing firm Price Waterhouse,Delhi,in the Satyam fraud case and as per the Delhi High Court order,which was passed today,the accounting regulator is free to decide and issue a fresh notice to the auditing firm. Price Waterhouse,New Delhi,had filed a writ petition before the Delhi High Court. The court observed that the Director Discipline shall decide and issue a fresh notice to Price Waterhouse (New Delhi) and thereafter proceed further in accordance with the Chartered Accountants Act and the rules framed thereunder, ICAI president Uttam Prakash Agarwal said. He said that the institute would take a call and issue fresh notices soon after taking the decison. Earlier during the day,the Delhi High Court had observed that since there was no inter-connection between PW Bangalore,which audited the accounts of fraud-hit IT firm Satyam,and PW Delhi,it was not fair to proceed with disciplinary action against the firm. They are separate partnership firms with separate balance sheets. There is no inter-connection (between PW Delhi,PW Bangalore and PW Kolkata and profit and loss of one cannot be shared by others. You cannot say that the Banglore firm which was the statutory auditor of Satyam has anything to do with the Delhi firm, Justice Sanjiv Khanna said. The court,however,made it clear that the regulator was free to initiate fresh proceedings if it found prima facie evidence of misconduct against PW Delhi,a member of global auditing firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. I am with you (ICAI) if they are wrong. But the anxiety of the court is that there must be fairness in the proceeding. If someone has done wrong,then he must be punished, the court told ICAI while passing the order. Price Waterhouse auditors role was questioned after the founder chairman of the IT firm confessed to the Rs 7,000 crore fraud early this year. ICAI had on October 8,2009 issued notices against Price Waterhouses Delhi,Kolkata and Bangalore-based members for their alleged role in the Satyam fraud case after finding them prima facie guilty of professional misconduct.
