RIL insider trading case: SEBI plea against CIC order deferred

A division bench of Justices S Z Vajifdar and Mridula Bhatkar was today informed that Reliance has already approached the Delhi High Court challenging the CIC's order which is slated for hearing on January 30.

The Delhi High Court had earlier granted interim stay on the disclosure order.

Following this, the Bombay High Court adjourned hearing into Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) petition till February 1.

On November 6 last year, Chief Information Commissioner Satyendra Mishra had passed the disclosure order on an appeal filed by RTI activist Anil Agarwal, seeking information from SEBI regarding its probe into the 2007 insider trading case.

The case relates to the merger of Reliance Petroleum with Reliance Industries Ltd and the short sale of shares in the former by entities related to the latter.

During the last hearing, the High Court had raised a query as to why Reliance was not heard by the CIC before the disclosure order was passed.

In its petition, SEBI said the fact that the order has been passed by Mishra and not the CIC as a whole, makes it "bad in law" and therefore "null and void and of no effect."

Apart from Mishra, the CIC has seven other members.