In a case involving listing fraud, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday stayed a special court decision that ordered the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) against former SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and other SEBI and BSE officials.
The court noted that the special court had made the ruling without fully reviewing the facts or giving Buch and the other accused members defined roles.
After Buch and two others appealed the ruling in the High Court, relief was granted by Justice SG Dige, a single judge.
“The complainant requests more time to submit a response. It seems that the judge issued the order mechanically after hearing from all parties, without going into specifics or giving the applicants any credit. The High Court decided that the injunction should be stayed.
The case concerned allegations of irregularities in a company’s 1994 listing on the BSE, which led a special court to order the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to file a formal complaint against Buch and five other individuals. A journalist from Dombivli named Sapan Shrivastava had complained under Section 156(3) of the CrPC, claiming that SEBI officials had colluded to authorize a company’s 1994 listing without making sure that all legal requirements were met. He asserted that he sought judicial intervention since, despite his repeated complaints to SEBI and law enforcement, nothing was done.
The SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, and important aspects of the SEBI Act, 1992 were not implemented by the accused SEBI officials and BSE executives, according to the complaint.
Along with Buch, the special court had ordered a formal complaint against BSE executives Pramod Agarwal and Sundararaman Ramamurthy, as well as SEBI whole-time members Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G, and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney.
After that, Buch, Bhatia, and Agarwal went to the High Court to contest the ruling.
