Needed: A good settlement mechanism

One area that needs more attention is the dichotomy between the principle that the strength of the defence is irrelevant and the consideration of major and minor character of the violation alleged

Recommendations from a committee set up by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to reform the regulatory framework for settlement of proceedings, mark the beginning of a much-needed reform in this space. The Indian capital market has struggled in this department. The committee has made some beginnings and made some misses — but significantly, come up with some important reform recommendations.

The report is heavily laden with literature on the subject from the United States but falls short of computational reform in the field of sentencing. However, some obviously unworkable and arbitrary aspects of the current settlement mechanism have