Sebi rejects 14 consent pleas during January-June

Regulator Sebi in the first six months of this year has rejected 14 consent applications of entities that sought settlement of proceedings with regard to alleged violations of market regulator norms.
With this, the total rejected consent applications by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) reached 241 since the revised norms for the consent framework came into effect on May 25, 2012.
The rejected consent applications, which took place between January 1 and June 12, include the pleas of Baader Bank AG, Gulf Investment Services Holdings Co, South India Travels, Tumus Electric Corporation, A F Enterprises and Parag Fans and Cooling Systems for violations of takeover norms.

Sebi also turned down the joint consent plea of Paramjeet Singh, Manjeet Singh and Surjeet Singh (HUF) for violations of takeover norms.
The regulator has refused settlement with Devanathan Sundararajan, Asia Texx Enterprises, Gagan Rastogi, Deep Kumar Rastogi and Sarvesh Kumar Goorha for alleged fraudulent trade practices in Cals Refineries Ltd. Besides, it rejected the plea of Gemini Communication Ltd for violating Listing Agreement.
Sebi said these pleas have been turned down as they were not found to be in consonance with the consent mechanism. "The pending proceedings in these cases will continue in accordance with law," the regulator noted.

"The rejection of consent applications, however, shall not prejudice the pending proceedings in any manner," it added.
Under Sebi's consent mechanism, companies and individuals can seek to settle a case with the market regulator after the payment of certain charges, without admission or denial of any wrongdoings.
In May 2012, Sebi had tightened its regulations for settlement through the consent framework. The regulator has also been making public the names of the rejected applications since January last year.