DLF challenges Sebi order imposing Rs 26 crore fine

In February, Sebi had imposed penalties on DLF & its top executives for entering into "sham transactions

DLF today filed an appeal before Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against capital market watchdog Sebi's order slapping Rs 26 crore penalty on it for indulging in "fraudulent and unfair trade practices".

In the biggest-ever penalty in a single case, Sebi, in February, had imposed penalties on DLF, its top executives, their family members and various other related entities for entering into "sham transactions".

The violations were found with regard to suppressing key information at the time of the realty major's IPO in 2007.

DLF said in a regulatory filing that it has filed an appeal before SAT against the order.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), through the order on February 26, had imposed a cumulative penalty of Rs 26 crore on the company.

DLF said the appeal would come up for hearing before the tribunal in "due course" and added that a copy of the appeal has been served on Sebi.

Apart from DLF, its chairman K P Singh, his son and Vice Chairman Rajiv Singh, daughter Pia Singh, as also three "housewives" married to 'key management personnel' of the DLF group were also penalised for "fraudulent and unfair trade practices".

The realty major had earlier said that it did not violate any laws.

In the same case, Sebi in October last year barred DLF and its six top executives, including Singh and his two children, from markets for three years for suppressing key information at the time of its IPO in 2007, including about certain "sham transactions" involving an associate firm, Sudipti Estates.

Last month, the SAT had passed a 'majority order' quashing the three-year market ban imposed on the realty giant by regulator Sebi, even as the Presiding Officer dissented.

Sebi's orders imposing similar ban on DLF's six top officials, including Chairman K P Singh and his children Rajiv Singh and Pia Singh, were also set aside by the same majority order, passed by two members of the SAT.