Disclose asset, income details of chairman, CIC tells Sebi

Commission says move will be in public interest; Sebi to challenge order

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to reveal the details of assets and liabilities of its chairman, UK Sinha, within four weeks. It has also sought the regulator declare Sinha’s total emoluments.

A Sebi spokesperson said the regulator would appeal against the order.

Overturning its 2012 decision, the commission found an appeal in this regard to be a “fit case, where the requested information should be disclosed in larger public interest”. In an order dated November 28, a CIC Bench said, “We are inclined to allow the disclosure of the requested information. The respondent is directed to provide the information sought in para 2 (a) and (b) above to the appellant within four weeks from the date of receipt of this order. The appeal is allowed.”

The appeal, by Bengaluru-based advocate Arun Agrawal, challenged the Sebi central public information officer (CPIO)’s decision to reject an RTI application seeking details of “the assets and liabilities statement of UK Sinha, chairman of Sebi, for the last three years or for the period declared by him; and (b) the total present emoluments of UK Sinha, along with perquisites on which he has been employed with Sebi”.

In response to an email seeking comment, a Sebi spokesperson said, “It may be noted out of four different cases of appeals filed by Arun Kumar Agrawal, CIC, in its earlier common order dated November 6, 2012, inter alia, held ‘the information regarding the assets and liabilities of the Sebi chairman is clearly in the nature of personal information, exempt under subsection 1 (j) of section 8 of the RTI Act’. We do not agree with the submissions of the appellant that greater public interest will warrant the disclosure of such information and would, therefore, not like to direct the CPIO to disclose any such information”.

The statement added, “On an appeal, the honourable Delhi High Court, vide an order dated January 30, 2013, remanded the order to the CIC, on the grounds that no notice was issued by the CIC to the parties that had approached the high court, without expressing any views on the merits of the matter. However, the CIC, vide four separate orders dated November 29, 2014, reversed its earlier order in three cases and upheld the orders of the CPIO. With regard to the order relating to disclosure of information pertaining to the Sebi chairman, the CIC has reversed its decision dated November 6, 2012, which is beyond its jurisdiction. Sebi will prefer an appeal against the

Sebi also said the points before the CIC pertaining to compensation and salary and its disclosure were earlier raised by Agrawal before the Supreme Court. The apex court had studied these issues in detail and vide an order November 1, 2013, dismissed the writ petition. "It is also informed the Sebi chairman has been regularly filing his property returns, according to extant guidelines."

Though the issues raised by Agrawal had been dealt with and his writ petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court, he had been raising the same issues on various fora time and again, the Sebi spokesperson said.

In a separate order, the CIC has also directed Sebi to provide copies of all documents, along with file notes from the time of conception and preparation of the note for the approval and notification of the circular that brought into effect the consent order mechanism and compounding of offences. However, it allowed the markets regulator to excise the names and designations of the officers making the file notes.

On Saturday, Business Standard had reported two other appeals of Agrawal, also part of CIC's 2012 order, to which Reliance Industries had raised objections, were dismissed by the commission.