In an unprecedented move, the Centre has extended the term of SEBI Chairman UK Sinha for the second time by a year on Monday.
A former officer of the Indian Administrative Service, Sinha was appointed as the market regulator in 2011 for a three-year term, which was extended by another two years in 2014.
Sinha’s three predecessors — CB Bhave, M Damodaran and GN Bajpai — each had three-year terms as SEBI Chairman. In recent times, Sinha is the only one whose term has been extended, and that too twice, after DR Mehta had a seven-year stint between February 1995 and February 2002.
Now, Sinha has been given extension till March 2017.
“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved re-appointment of UK Sinha, Chairman, SEBI, for the same post with effect from February 18, 2016, up to March 1, 2017, or until further orders,” said an official communication.
No reason was cited for the extension of his term.
The first indication of his likely extension came when one of the front-runners for the post — former chairman of the Forward Markets Commission Ramesh Abhishek was appointed Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, last week.