SC refuses to stay stake sale of DLF subsidiaries

The Supreme Court today refused to to stay the stake sale of three subsidiaries of realty major DLF Ltd.
A bench comprising justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre said it would not impose any prohibition on the activities of DLF at this stage and would hear the plea with the main case.
SEBI was seeking a stay on transfer of shares by DLF's subsidiaries to an overseas entity.
The market regulator told the apex court that since DLF had been barred from accessing the market directly or indirectly, this could affect the main case.
It further said that DLF in its information given to the stock exchange had told that it had directed its subsidiaries to transfer these shares.

SEBI had challenged the order of the appellate tribunal quashing SEBI's decision to bar it and its six top executives from capital markets for three years.

SEBI had passed an order in October last year against the DLF and its officials after finding them guilty of "active and deliberate suppression" of material information at the time of its IPO in 2007.
While that order did not include any monetary penalty, the market regulator passed another directive, in the same case, wherein penalties totalling Rs 86 crore were imposed on DLF, its top executives and a host of related persons and entities including housewives of some executives.

In the case, apart from DLF, Chairman K P Singh, his son and daughter, Managing Director T C Goyal, former CFO Ramesh Sanka and Kameshwar Swarup, who was ED-Legal at the time of the company's public offer in 2007, were also barred by SEBI.
After its over four-year probe, SEBI had found that a "case of active and deliberate suppression of any material information so as to mislead and defraud the investors in the securities market in connection with the issue of shares of DLF in its IPO is clearly made out in this case.