Staffers ask Sebi chief: Where's your protection?

With 70 officials in 2 years forced to respond to queries and examination from CBI, I-T and police agencies, the Sebi Employees Association wrote a letter to U K Sinha

Employees at the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) have asked for protection from external probes for decisions taken in their official capacity.

The recently registered Sebi Employees Association (SEA) has in a letter to U K Sinha, the regulatory body's chairman, sought that Sebi take responsibility for decisions, to prevent officials from being singled out in this regard.

The letter, dated December 14, says 70 of the total strength of 652 officials have been called upon in the past two years by external agencies to record their statements in matters they have either investigated or dealt with in an official capacity. These agencies include the Central Bureau of Investigation, income tax department and the economic offences wing of the city police here.

"Absence of any institutional mechanism within Sebi is leading to a growing feeling within Sebi officials that for carrying out their official duty, no one is there to stand by them, no protection is available to them and they are left to fend for themselves on their own," said the SEA letter.

The number of enquires in 2014 were around 30; this had more than doubled this year, say the staffers. "We understand that the truth needs to come out and the law needs to take its own course. But, what is shocking is the manner, magnitude and the scale at which this process is taking place. Not within or by Sebi but by external agencies, more so during the past couple of years," says the letter.

SEA has sought that a nodal cell which represents Sebi handle these issues. As documents related to all cases are available, coordination for queries from external agencies should be with Sebi as an organisation. Individual employees should be called upon only in extraordinary circumstances.

It is Sebi the organisation that should own up to the decisions and not individuals. "It is therefore suggested that this coordination may be done only by the nodal cell of Sebi. Deposing of dealing officers should be only an exception and not a routine one," stated the employees.

The intensity of external agency queries have increased in the past year and a half over certain high-profile cases -- Saradha scam, IPO disclosure, National SPot Exchange controversy, Emkay collateral, realty major DLF's issues, MCX-SX permission to be a stock exchange, Financial Technologies' alleged unfair practices, Bank of Rajasthan merger with ICICI.