SAT asks whether Sebi can reconsider RIL consent plea

Hearing adjourned to October 29

The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has asked whether the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) can reconsider a Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) consent application relating to an insider trading charge dating back to 2007.

A consent application allows the settlement of charges by paying a monetary penalty without admitting or denying guilt. RIL had filed for consent in relation to allegations of insider trading involving erstwhile subsidiary Reliance Petroleum.

The company had moved SAT, challenging the rejection of its consent application by a Sebi advisory committee. The company had said the regulator had failed to provide it certain documents related to the charges. Sebi had, however, denied these allegations, with its lawyers saying thousands of pages of documents had already been made available to the company.

The issue was resolved on Friday, after which the tribunal asked whether Sebi would like to reconsider the application.

Earlier, Sebi had maintained whether or not it chose to grant consent to an applicant was up to the regulator.

The matter had previously been heard on September 25. At that time, the tribunal had rejected an intervening petition filed by M Furquan, editor of Urdu daily Sach Bilkul Sach. Furquan wished to be part of the petition on grounds of public interest.

The next hearing on the matter is scheduled for October 29.

 

The regulator had imposed a penalty of Rs.11 crore in May against a Reliance subsidiary, Reliance Petroinvestments, on charges of insider trading in a separate case. The regulator had looked into the company purchasing shares in Indian Petrochemicals before key announcements including a merger with Reliance Industries and declaration of an interim dividend.

 

Reliance was up 0.37% to close at Rs.863 on Friday. In comparison, the Sensex was up 1.26%.