The crisis has deepened at the Bank of Rajasthan (BoR). On Monday, the private sector bank deferred its board meeting to May 28 to finalise its financial results.

However, the bank said the postponement was necessary as some board members of the bank, who have been nominated by the Reserve Bank India (RBI), have asked for more time to study the balance sheet. RBI has appointed five directors out of the total 16 board of directors of the bank. The development comes as the bank is reported to be in talks for selling out its principal promoter PK Tayal?s stake to ICICI Bank or Axis Bank. But Tayal has denied it.

The bank board, as scheduled, had met on Sunday to finalise the results but couldn?t do it as some members asked for more time to study and deliberate on the balance sheet.

?We are meeting on May 28 to finalise the results,?? said G Padmanbhan, CEO &MD of the bank. Padmanabhan was appointed by RBI five months back to put things in order.

However, Padmanabhan refused to divulge the details of Sunday board meeting and exact concerns of some of the board members.

?I was appointed to sort out corporate governance and other issues,?? said Padmanabhan, adding that the bank is striving to improve its conditions on all fronts. The bank has progressed and there is a scope for further improvement, he said. Padmanabhan also pleaded ignorance on the issue regarding some other private sector banks showing interest in taking over the bank.

RBI had also appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells to conduct a special audit of the bank, which recently submitted its interim report to the central bank .

?The (interim) report of the special audit has been submitted by Deloitte to RBI. We have received a copy of that,? said Padmanabhan. But he did not disclose further details about the report saying that it was not appropriate for him to do that as the special audit was ordered by RBI.

In the December quarter, the bank’s net profit declined to Rs 44.7 crore as against Rs 49.21 crore in the year-ago period while its total income dropped to Rs 373.7 crore from Rs 419.8 crore.

Recently, it is believed that ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank had shown interest to take over BoR and held preliminary discussions with Tayals for a possible buy out of the latter’ stake in the bank. However, ICICI Bank had refused to comment on the issue. ?There are people who are coming (to buy the stake). They are not welcome…the answer is no,? said Tayal. At present, the Tayals have a stated holding of around 28% in BoR while according to market regulator Sebi, the promoters’ actual holding in the entity is around 55%.

In March, Sebi banned 100 entities including Tayal Group firms from all stock market-related activities for fraudulently hiking the promoter holding in the bank. In its order, Sebi had said the promoters had apparently conveyed the impression that they are reducing their shareholding but they did not, in fact, dilute their controlling stake. ?On the contrary, they had increased their shareholding in a fraudulent manner with the active connivance of others,? Sebi said.