Appoint a new officer to decide on Zee promoters’ case: SAT to Sebi

Mumbai: The Securities Appellate Tribunal has directed market watchdog Sebi to nominate a brand new whole-time member or a higher-grade officer to evaluation the objections of Zee promoters Punit Goenka and Subhash Chandra Goenka towards an interim order towards them.

The brand new whole-time member (WTM) must repair a date for a listening to inside every week from the date of submitting of the reply by the Goenkas and cross applicable orders inside two weeks after the listening to, SAT stated in its order on Thursday.

The order got here on an utility filed by the Securities and Change Board of India (Sebi) on July 24 requesting the appellate tribunal to switch its July 10 order that barred two of its three WTMs – Ashwani Bhatia and Ananth Narayan G – from listening to the Goenkas’ objections with a purpose to get rid of any prejudice.

Bhatia had handed the order towards the promoters of Zee Leisure Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) on June 12, barring them from holding directorship or managerial place in any listed agency or its subsidiaries for alleged siphoning and round-tripping of funds, till additional orders. Narayan was a part of the settlement proceedings towards them.

The opposite WTM, Ananta Barua is retiring on July 31.

Sebi had sought SAT’s permission to nominate Narayan or any authorised officer to think about the objections of the Goenkas and cross additional orders within the case.The tribunal has dominated out Narayan. If no WTM is obtainable, then Sebi could appoint any authorised officer larger in grade, rank, or place than the WTM to resolve the matter towards the Goenkas, it stated.Sumit Agrawal, founding father of Regstreet Regulation Advisors, stated the market watchdog has a number of choices to deal with the scenario, reminiscent of appointing an unbiased committees like within the NSDL case, or escalating issues to the Supreme Courtroom if wanted.

“An instance of such delegation occurred in the course of the NSDL Roopalben Panchal IPO case, the place a committee comprising Mohan Gopal and V Leeladhar was appointed to analyze allegations towards NSDL on account of potential conflicts arising from the Sebi chairman’s previous function because the NSDL chairman,” he stated.

Agrawal, who’s a former Sebi officer, stated the Sebi chairperson’s order-passing authority has modified over the past decade and a half. It has change into customary to delegate this energy to WTMs or different members of the board in sure instances.