Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Anti-Curruption Bureau (ACB) of the state police, not to take any action until further order in an order passed by the lower court to register a first information report (FIR) against the former regulatory chief Madhabi Puri Buch, three current whole-time members at the watchdog, and two BSE officials.
Justice Shivkumar Dige, in an oral order, directed the ACB not to register an FIR and posted the matter for further hearing on Tuesday.
Before that Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta and Senior Counsel Amit Desai appeared for Sebi (Securities & Exchange Board of India) Buch and a WTM (whole time member) Bhatia and BSE officials Pramod Agarwal, BSE Chairman respectively and sought the court’s intervention to hear the matter expeditiously.
Madhabi Puri Buch, Ashwani Bhatia and Pramod Agarwal have also filed separate applications to quash and set aside the lower court’s order.
The case’s genesis lies in the lower court’s order to direct the ACB to register an FIR and investigate alleged irregularities in granting listing permissions to a company without complying with rules.
The cases were to be filed against the former Sebi chairperson and full-time members Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan, and Kamlesh Varshney, as well as the ex-chairman of BSE Pramod Agarwal and its current chief executive, Sundararaman Ramamurthy.The security market regulator Sebi on Sunday said that it would challenge a special court’s order. The regulator said even though these officials were not holding their respective positions at the relevant point of time, the court allowed the application without issuing any notice or granting any opportunity to it to place the facts on record.“The applicant is known to be a frivolous and habitual litigant, with previous applications being dismissed by the court, with the imposition of costs in some cases,” said the Sebi in a statement.
In a separate statement on Sunday evening, BSE said: “The officials named in the application were not in their respective positions at the time of listing and were not connected with the company at all. The application is frivolous and vexatious in nature.”
“There is prima facie evidence of regulatory lapses and collusion, requiring a fair and impartial probe,” Special Judge Shashikant Eknathrao Bangar said in his 12-page order. “The investigation shall be monitored by this court.” He has asked the ACB to submit a status report within 30 days. The company, Cals Refineries was listed on the BSE in 1994.
The complainant, Sapan Shrivastava, a person who claims to be a journalist, has alleged that documents reveal procedural lapses and noncompliance in the IPO process.