The Hindu Business Line : Squabble over posting SAT orders on SEBI site

SINCE January 2004, the Security and Exchange Board of India's Web site has stopped carrying the orders passed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).

SEBI has done this is on the instruction of the now expanded, three-member tribunal, headed by Mr Justice Kumar Rajaratnam. In a curious twist to this claim, SAT confirmed to Business Line that there has been no such communication to SEBI.

"No instruction has been given to SEBI, either in writing or orally, requesting SEBI not to put any of the orders of SAT on the Web site," said Mr S J. Parmar, SAT Registrar. He said the orders are public documents and available for perusal any time. However, the tribunal cannot have a Web site of its own to publish these, as that would be contrary to judicial discipline, he said.

SAT has passed over 110 final orders in the various cases that have come up before it, since March this year.

SEBI is entitled to receive each and every order passed by SAT, as it is involved in all the cases that go before the tribunal.

When contacted, Mr R.S. Loona, Executive Director - Legal, SEBI, said SEBI has been "orally" told not to publish these orders. "We are going to take the matter up with SAT. We want their permission in writing before we publish the orders on our Web site again," he said.

SAT is categorical that its orders are public documents and no permission is required to publish these.

"In fact, we have also requested Taxmann publications SEBI and Corporate Law Weekly Journal and Company Law Journal to report SAT's judgments, if they so desire. So far, judgments have not been reported in these publication after the tribunal was upgraded," said Mr Parmar.

It is alleged that SEBI discontinued publishing SAT's orders, as the tribunal was critical of SEBI's functioning in several of its orders. However, SEBI said that even the orders upheld by the tribunal were not published.

Publication of SAT's orders is crucial, not just to maintain the transparency of the tribunal, but also since the legal precedent set in these orders will have serious ramifications on the cases that are waiting to come up before the tribunal.

SAT recently passed orders on many high profile cases including the one on Reliance in which SEBI was asked to repay the penalty it levied on the company.

None of these orders have appeared on the regulator's Web site.

SAT clarified that anyone can approach them for a copy of the order and it is erroneous to suggest that the orders are not available to the public.

Till SEBI decides to resume publication of these orders, a trudge to the SAT office is the only recourse available to the public.

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