Former SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch
| Photo Credit: PTI
The Bombay High Court, on Tuesday (March 4, 2025) stayed the special court order that sought an FIR be lodged against former SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch and five others in an alleged stock market fraud, regulatory violations, and corruption linked to the listing of a company in 1994.
It posted the case for the next hearing will be after four weeks.
A Mumbai special court had ordered ACB of Worli in Mumbai to register an FIR under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act, the SEBI Act, and other applicable laws. “The investigation shall be monitored by this Court. A status report shall be submitted within 30 days,” the order said.
On Monday, the High Court agreed to hear the matter on the basis of urgency on Tuesday after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for SEBI and senior counsel Amit Desai appeared for BSE officials to mention the petitions for urgent hearing before a Single-Bench judge, Justice Shivkumar Dige.
Mr. Mehta appeared for Ms. Buch and three current whole time SEBI directors: Ashwani Bhatia, Ananth Narayan G. and Kamlesh Chandra Varshney. Mr. Desai appeared for BSE Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sundararaman Ramamurthy and its former Chairman and Public Interest Director Pramod Agarwal.
The complaint in this case was filed by Sapan Shrivastava, 47, a legal reporter from Dombivali in Maharashtra’s Thane district. The complainant sought registration of FIR and investigation into alleged large-scale financial fraud, regulatory violations, and corruption.
The charges pertain to the alleged fraudulent listing of a company, Cals Refineries Ltd, on the stock exchange in 1994, with the active connivance of regulatory authorities, particularly SEBI, without compliance under the SEBI Act, 1992. The complainant contended that SEBI officials failed in their statutory duty, facilitated market manipulation, and enabled corporate fraud by allowing the listing of a company that did not meet the prescribed norms.
Cals Refineries was suspended from trading on the stock exchange since 2019, according to data on the BSE website.
In a statement issued on Sunday, SEBI officials said that the market regulator would initiate appropriate legal steps to challenge the sessions court order and that it remained committed to ensuring due regulatory compliance in all matters. https://nohu.win/ Our user-friendly platform and mobile app make it easy to place bets, track your results, and manage your account on the go.
In a separate statement, the BSE called the application “frivolous and vexatious in nature”.
Published – March 04, 2025 12:04 pm IST