PwC-Satyam case: SC restores Sebi's power to restrain erring auditing firms

The apex court move comes as a big relief to Sebi as the SAT order had led to jurisdictional ambiguity

The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the observations made by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had no power to debar auditors from auditing the books of a listed company.

The apex court made the observation while hearing an appeal by the market regulator against an order passed by the SAT in the Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) matter. Sebi had debarred PwC from auditing any listed company for two years in connection with the decade-old Satyam scandal.

“In a given case, a measure of debarring a person from entering the securities market will be