Dish TV, 4 others settle non-disclosure of AGM voting results with Sebi

Direct-to-Home operator Dish TV India Ltd and four others have settled with markets regulator Sebi a case pertaining to alleged non-disclosure of voting results of the company's Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on December 30, 2021.

Apart from Dish TV, its promoter Jawahar Lal Goel, group chief executive Anil Kumar Dua, compliance officer Ranjit Singh and Ashok Mathai Kurien, who was the director of the company, settled the case.

These five entities have settled the case after collectively paying Rs 65.34 lakh towards settlement amount, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in an order.

This came after the entities proposed Sebi to settle the alleged violations of regulatory norms through a settlement order, "without admitting or denying the findings".

Accordingly, Sebi, in its order passed on Monday, stated "the pending enforcement proceedings for the alleged defaults ...are settled qua the applicants."

The regulator received complaints alleging that Dish TV, part of Essel Group, had wrongfully withheld the results of voting on various proposals put forth in its AGM held on December 30, 2021.

Following this, Sebi asked the company in January to disclose the voting results/outcome of the AGM immediately. Separately, Sebi also sought an explanation from the company for the non-compliance with the provision of LODR (Listing Obligation and Disclosure Requirement) rules.

In response to the same, the company submitted that the issue of declaration of results of the AGM was sub-judice before the Bombay High Court and requested Sebi to suspend its advisory.

Since the court had not passed any order restraining the company from disclosing the outcome of the AGM, Sebi once again in February reminded the company about its statutory obligations towards shareholders and other stakeholders and advised the company to immediately disclose the voting results of the AGM.

Despite this clarification and repeated advisories issued by Sebi, the company did not disclose the results of voting in the AGM and accordingly the enforcement proceedings were initiated in March this year.

After that, these entities approached Sebi to settle the violations of the rules and settled the case. Dish TV and Singh paid Rs 45.54 lakh, while Goel, Dua and Mathai together remitted Rs 19.8 lakh.