The companies had allegedly lent money to the company founder Ramalinga Raju, who is currently in jail.

The receipt of the notices is supposed to be a major setback for Mahindra Satyam and its efforts to salvage the lose pride of the company.

As per the notices received from the 37 companies, the money was given to Satyam Computer as temporary advance. The notices have claimed the return of money to “repay creditors,” some of whom include Maytas Properties Ltd and Maytas Infra Ltd.

Satyam Computer has replied to the legal notices and according to its reply on November 14, 2009, the claims were not legally tenable. Apparently, Ramalinga Raju’s confession letter had also contained information related to the money received from the 37 companies.

The money Raju received from the 37 companies remained an understated liability and was never on the books of Satyam. Recently, companies such as IL&FS, have asked Mahindra Satyam to show them the money they owed to the company as debts on the company’s account sheets.

It will be tough for the lenders to get their money back, since  the transaction was not carried out in the public domain and, therefore, the circumstances under which lent money was lent to Raju is unclear.

IL&FS, the new owner of Maytas Infra, had recently written to Mahindra Satyam showing the company proof of a transfer of Rs 20 crore through two front companies — Angeerasa Greenfields and Saptaswara AgroFarm — on July 31, 2008, into Satyam accounts through the Hyderabad branch of Axis Bank.

“It is rather unfortunate that due to the continued economic constraints and business outlook, we do not anticipate that we will have the ability to recall many of our valued associates within the VPP period.”

Around 8,000 employees have become a part of the virtual pool that was formed on June 11, 2009. On that day Vineet Nayyar, CEO, Tech Mahindra had said that the VPP employees will be provided with  basic salary, PF and medical insurance.

The six-month period of VPP will come to an end in December, 2009. Since the company does not have enough projects to accommodate all VPP employees, it has sent a two-month notice to over 5000 employees as per the employment contract.

The reason for the axing is believed to be the lack of enough projects to accommodate all the employees.

A Mahindra Satyam spokesperson denied the news regarding layoffs and said that the company has taken 1,500 associates from the virtual pool.