The Securities Appellate Tribunal has adjourned, till January 24, a hearing on the insider trading case involving Reliance Industries (RIL) and markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Mukesh Ambani-led RIL had moved the tribunal against the market regulator after the latter rejected the petroleum major’s application to settle a matter on the alleged violation of insider trading norms.
RIL had pleaded with SEBI to settle the matter under its consent framework process, in which an entity being investigated pays a fee and the regulator drops the case and all charges of wrongdoing.
However, in May 2012, SEBI had tweaked the regulations for settlement through consent framework and made it more stringent, as a result of which many cases, including those related to insider trading cannot be settled through this mechanism.
SEBI had also rejected, for the third time, a request by RIL for an out-of-court settlement and drop the charges on the insider trading case.
RIL and its subsidiaries had allegedly made unlawful gains worth over Rs 500 crore through the insider trading in the shares of the erstwhile Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) in 2007 during the merger of RPL with RIL.
When the case came up for hearing on Friday, senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas, representing RIL, said that the company was forced to file an appeal at SAT after SEBI acted in a “discriminatory” manner while deciding on the consent application filed by the company.
To this Shiraz Rustomjee, lawyer representing SEBI, said the RIL’s plea is a “non-starter” as appeals are not contemplated under the consent mechanism and hence the tribunal should decide if the appeal is fit to be admitted.
SEBI also said it needs time to study the petition, to which SAT Presiding Officer P.K. Malhotra adjourned the case till January 24.
Meanwhile, SEBI and RIL together are fighting the same case on insider trading against CIC in the Bombay High Court, which will be heard on January 21.